MM Comment
As a new survey by Mumsnet and Gransnet reveals that one fifth of grandparents don’t like the names chosen by their kids for their grandchildren, MM’s Editor considers that they may have a point…
What’s in a name?
By Debbie Orme
Naming your child is never easy, is it? When our daughter was born, my partner and I had decided on the moniker ‘Faye’ but, by the second day of trying to breastfeed, and with two little fists coming at my breast ready for a punch-up, I gazed lovingly at her and thought ‘Faye my ass’. To me ‘Faye’ was a sylph-like, gauzy kind of character, not this 7lbs 14oz combo of my bad temper and her dad’s ju jitzu skills. And so it was back to the drawing board. Daddy helpfully texted me a ‘shortlist’
of 36 potential names and, having eschewed the ‘noms du jour’ at that time – Kylie, Charlene, Melissa etc - Antonia Florence it was. ‘Oh no,’ said Grandpa when I told him.
‘That’s very difficult to say…..’ ‘Ann-toe-knee-a Flor-ince’ I repeated to
him as if English wasn’t his first language. ‘How is that difficult?’ Apparently more difficult than I realised.
For a start, my daughter now spends half her time telling people it’s AntoniA and not AntoniO, but, that apart, I’ve discovered that many people did actually think it was a little ‘out of the ordinary’. Take the day we went to the baby clinic,
for example. I sat in the GP surgery with a bunch of
other mums, assorted babes in carriers. Out comes the midwife. ‘Dryden Maginnis?’she calls. Up gets one mum, blue carrier in hand, and in she goes.
64 Modernmum
Ten minutes later midwife reappears. ‘Failcearna McGovern?’. Up gets another mum, this time pink-swaddled carrier in hand. Ten minutes later it was my turn.
‘Antonia McGuiggan’, calls the midwife. I made my way towards the midwife who, as I passed her, said ‘Antonia? That’s an unusual name…….’ Hello? I thought. Would Dryden and Failcearna like to take a bow…..?
New Zealand recently turned down Yeah Detroit and twins Fish and Chips!
So I can kind of see what the
Mumsnet/Gransnet survey means. I mean, since my daughter was born, I’ve had to write an assortment of cards to welcome ‘Marley’, ‘Electra’ and ‘Sky’, among others. I think part of the problem is that, in
Ireland, there are no restrictions on what you choose to call your child, unlike in other countries around the world. In New Zealand, for example, a judge
recently made a young girl a ward of court because she wanted to change the name her parents had given her – Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii! The country also recently turned down Yeah Detroit and
twins Fish and Chips. However, Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence are currently happily living outside Wellington! America - needless to say - boasts quite
a few names that are – OK, let’s call it ‘out there’. On top of the monikers bestowed by celebrities on their offspring – Apple Martin (Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin), Blue Ivy Carter (Beyonce/Jay-Z) and North West (Kim Kardashian/Kanye West), your average, regular American is not behind the door when it comes to giving their kids names that will haunt them come the glorious day they’re called on to the stage at graduation. The States currently boasts people named Female, Enamel, Lettuce, Mustard M Mustard, Vagina, Mutton and Post Office. There have also been (to date) 20 people named Noun, 458 named Comma, 18 Periods and one Semicolon. I’m sure that many grandparents would
love it if Ireland followed the Danish system where, when a child is born, parents are provided with a list of 7000+ names to choose from by the government. Special permission is required for a name that’s not on the list. Thankfully for boys, Anus is one of the names regularly rejected, although Pluto and Monkey have also had lucky escapes! Maybe the Irish government should
produce a similar list. I’m sure there are a lot of grandparents, who would be happy to help them out with it! Full stop. No, not you, Full Stop…
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
