Name Calling

We have all been through it. Some stupid kid in school starts rhyming things with names and the next thing you know, you are being called "Sue Poo" or "ew...Sue". I can still remember walking up the path to the cabin in McCall and hearing my brother call my name and saying "come look! Your name is up here!". He was at the age where he rarely graced any of us with his conversation unless it was to torment, but I went to look excitedly. It was a sewer cover. I don't even think I could read at that point, but he let me know that it said "sewer" and that it was my name. I remember feeling quite sad about that one. Now that I'm older, who cares. So my name is Sue and it rhymes with poo. It's also quite similar to a word that is found on a manhole in every city street. Who cares. Sue is not a terrible name. There are much worse. In fact, I like my name. I'm glad my parents chose Susanne instead of Hortense or something worse (I apologize if your name is Hortense...but come on, you have to admit that it isn't a very nice thing to name your baby girl).
Mike and I put a lot of thought into the names we picked out for our kids. Mike is notorious for coming up with nick names for people. He has a cousin that I only knew as Oatface until I met him and found out his name was Darrill. Why "Oatface"? No one can say. That's just what he has always been called. Mike's nickname is Oday. He doesn't have a middle name and Grandpa Del would always sing "Michael Oday who peed in the hay". It has stuck for over 30 years.
Maybe he got the funny naming thing from his Grandpa Del. How ever it came, there are some hilarious nicknames, and some that can't be said aloud in mixed company. I have to say that he has rubbed off on me a little and I have given names to some neighbors that have stuck. My favorite one is Grizz. I started calling our neighbor Steve, Grizz (for Clark Grizwald) because of his spectacular Christmas light display. It has stuck with him, and now everyone in the ward knows him by that name.
When we named Jake, we thought of all the possible things he might be called. "Jake brake", no big deal. "Jake the snake", only bad if he turns out to be some slimy creepy kid. "Jake, go jump in a lake"...again, not terrible.
Well, now that Jake is in school, we have learned a new one. He came home yesterday and as we were chatting about the day he said "Tennis calls me 'Jacob makeup'". Mike and I cracked up. Mike said something about how a boy named Tennis will get teased a lot more over his life than a boy named Jacob ever will.
I was still laughing in surprise that there is a kid named Tennis out there. Sorry if it's one of your top ten all time favorite names for a boy (or if Tennis's parents happen to be reading). I'll just say that you and I are different in what we like for names.
So, Allie might get called "Allie cat" her whole life, and maybe other kids will chant "Jacob makeup" at Jake, but it could be a whole lot worse.
Actually, what will be worse is if the kids put two and two together and discover what Allie's initials spell out. But we did do that to ourselves. Mike and our pediatrician thought it would be funny. We'll see how much Allie Susanne Schwab resents us for that one.

So now the pressure is on. What to name this kid? I had my girl names all picked out. Boy names are a different story. I can assure you though, he won't be Tennis.