Baby Names ...

I actually told a bitchy mother once: "You spelled my child's name wrong." "No, mam, you did."

 

There was no way we were going the trendy, cutesy Brayden, Jayden, Hayden, Ayden route. And no Kayley, Hayley, Bayley, Kaileigh, Haileigh, Baileigh bullshit either. And no stripper names like Brandi or Sierra. And certainly no trendy ethnic wannabe names (my fellow American Jews with Israeli soldier fantasies giving their kids names like Avi, Amir, Yaniv, Gilad etc. seems just as silly as my Plastic Paddy Irish-American friends giving their kids names like Aoife, Siobhan, Paidraig and Declan). So my son is Max. Not Maxwell or anything like that. Just Max. One syllable. Can't be screwed up. Clearly a male name. Was also my grandfather's name. Not amenable to nicknames. And very easy to bark it out when he fucks something up.

And my daughter is Rebecca. No possibility of it ever going out of date or it ever being ubiquitous or trendy. Just so long as nobody insists on calling her Becky when she gets older, because that's a fat girl's name.

 

Bless you.

 

When we were preparing to name our children, I told my wife that whatever we pick it will be a traditional spelling. Too many years of taking boxscores over the phone and having to ask "And how do you spell that?" to everything.

The day after our oldest was born, I was walking through the hospital's main lobby and another new dad was talking on a cell phone, giving the details to a family member. I swear to God, this was the end of the conversation I overheard.

"Yeah, she was born this morning at (time).
She was (whatever size).
Yeah, we named her Abigail.
No, A-B-B-A then gail, you know, G-A-Y-L-E. Abbagayle.

Uff da.

 

My cousin's grandmother was named Rebecca. When she got into her teens, she decided it sounded too Jewish (even though she was Jewish) and changed it to...Beatrice.

On my side of the family, my great aunt was named Rachel. In the 1920s, she, too, thought it sounded too Jewish, so she changed her named to Gladys.

 

Our dogs' names are Snezhok and Dikusha, and we have a cat named Vasya. You're welcome to use those.

 

And once the whole BrookLynne thing gets old, they'll start naming 'em Bensonhurst, Canarsie, Bedstuy and Kensington.

 

Well, the most obvious name choice would have to be Seven. OK, Rasputin?

 

Me, too ... one son named Aaron (we threw around several other names -- Paul was a favorite), the girl names we have chosen for child No. 2 are pretty traditional (and the one we'll likely use, very unusual today).

 

Well, we freed up Andrew today when we found out we were having Emily instead.

 

Pretty sure Aiden and Liam have been around for a couple decades or so.

 

Congrats!!!