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Saturday, May 22, 2010

What’s in a name?

When we were picking names for our unborn child it was like torture.

I have all these crazy rules about naming – like the initials can’t spell anything, no alliterative initials (like DD), no silly rhyming etc.

The biggest “rule”, in my mind? NO NICKNAMES.

I am a big fan of proper names – like my name is Andrea, not Andi*.

 

When we choose Gianna I made it known that at no time should anyone call her Gia or GiGi.  GiGi is a name for a poodle and Gia reminds of someone who takes their clothes off for a living.  If, at some point in her life, she decides on her own to use one of these “names”, fine, but she will always be Gianna to me.

 

Then she was born.

And I still call her Gianna.

Except I don’t.

 

I started referring to her by her first initial only when she was really little.  And then, we started calling her “little bug” or “the bug” for no real reason at all except that she was really tiny and liked to sleep no other way except curled up like a little bug.

She is starting to talk and listen to things we say to her.  I noticed the other day that if I called her G, she turned and listened to me. If I called her Gianna, she didn’t. If  I called her bug, she did. 

 

Looks like I need to start using her name more than the nicknames I swore she would never have.

 

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*unless of course, you have known me for a LOOOONNG time, or are family, then you are special enough to call me Andi, otherwise, no dice.

8 comments:

BabyWid said...

Happy ICLW!!

I am totally the opposite- I pick a name that is able to have a nickname!
I love calling my daughter Bug! I said it one day and the nickname just stuck!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!!

Jennifer in MamaLand said...

Too funny!!! I do this with my own name (don't even TRY to call me Jenny!) and gave my kids names I swore I would use 100% of the time... so why is it that they are more often than not referred to as Pookie-Loo (he's 15 now!), Boohbah (14), Choochie (5) and Chicken Pie (2)???

~ Greetings from IComLeavWe (International Comment Leaving Week) #115!

Tricia said...

I remember you as being Andi. But I am also one of those "no nicknames" person. I'm Tricia, not Trish, or my last name! Good luck with using her full name!

Danifred said...

HEY! I have those rules too :) And, of course I call my girls Bubby and Chubba. Isn't that kind of me? I swear I could write an encyclopedia on all the things I swore I'd never do as a parent.

renee said...

well, like it or not, you are Andi to me forever (being friends since 3rd grade gives me that right lol). but i know exactly what you mean we tried really hard to force ppl to not even attept to use a nickname. so we gave them names that couldnt be shortened...and then they somehow got shorter...and shorter. i still HATE when ppl say marie or sophie (grrrrr it pisses me off just typing it lol). but then they started calling each other mia and pia and we have ended up doing it too just b/c we hear them do it all the time.

Justine L said...

I've called our son all kinds of things, but now mostly "my love" or "bug," depending on what I'm trying to get him to do. I wonder what he'll think when he's older!

Suzy said...

We are the same in our family. My mother's name is Theresa and she HATES if anyone dares to call her anything else. Its is her biggest pet peeve

I thought I would be the same with my boys but we constantly refer to them with different nicknames or pet names! Best of intentions...but it doesn't always work does it?

(I love the name Gianna btw - it was my best friends name in high school!)

Anonymous said...

Aww I call my daughter bug too!! And funny enough, we've called her Kaylee-bug so much [probably the majority of her life] that on her first day of Kindergarten when the teacher asked her what her name was, she replied: "Kaylee Bug". She was so proud. Still to this day [and mind you, she'll be 7 in 2 days] she still thinks Bug is a part of her real name LOL