Name Meme

I'm playing with incognito mom and musings mom today.

1. Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?

My husband's family does the mother's last name as the middle name or first name WASPy thing. My bifurcate monosyllabic family name wouldn't have made a good middle name and certainly not a first name. Johns Hopkins would have had nothing on us.

Koreans generally have two-syllable (first) names. One of the syllables is what is called the "doll-lim," the generational character that is shared by all the boy cousins on the father's side. So I'm the daughter but we kept that tradition anyway have another way to tie our Boo into our family. It falls in a certain order that has something to do with a Confucian poem. So my dad gave us Boo's name, which means "Bright Metal." The Metal is like tin, or solder, and I like that concept of someone who is humble and binds things together.

His first name is Biblical. I wanted one that represented an obedient man that stood up against the ridicule of his neighbors. HH wanted the warrior that fit the battle. I gave in.

But he goes by his middle (Korean) name. Heh.

2. Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names?

I came into the marriage not even wanting a kid, let alone a name.

3. Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?

HH's Mennonite last name, sadly, sounds like an aluminum can being crushed. Combine that with a Korean name and it wasn't going to be pretty. We concentrated on the first and middle names sounding okay.

4. Did you have veto powers?

Of course. We both did.

5. Did the baby naming cause arguments?

In our own way. Which is to maintain our opinions and be conspicuously quiet about it. As I said, I gave in. Wives, submit and all that.

6. Do you think it is easier to name boys or girls?

It depends. I like unusual names but HH wasn't having that for a boy. Girls, we would have had more flexibility, but then too many options!!

7. Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind?

I love the name Sophia but it's associated with a goddess movement.

8. Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?

We have an only. Future perfect tense.

9. Did you tell people the name or possible names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”?

Hmm, I don't remember! It was sort of a blurry time!

10. Did you use baby name books?

Yes, but seeing the different definitions for the same names I decided they were mostly bogus.

Drumroll please … What did you name your kid?

Those of you who are allowed to know, know. And if you know how to read this, you can know too!

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Play along! Let me know so I can read your kid’s naming story.