What's in a name? - 9/8/09

I feel that I need to clarify something.  I have gotten too many questions and comments like:  "Hmmm, Bueford or Buelah?",  "That's a joke, right?",  and "Your not really going to name your children that, are you?"   So, the answer is NO we are NOT really going to name our child Bueford or Buelah.  As wonderful as those names are, we were not serious when we said that.  Beulah has some history with Noel's family though.  It was Noels' great grandmother's name, so here is us paying homage to her.  I am sorry to those of you who were hoping on those choices or have already gotten blankets and onsies monogrammed.  I also thought I should clarify this because we don't know who might be reading this and they don't know our slightly odd sense of humor. 

So, what is in a name?  Do people really think about this before they name their children? The life long consequences of having a bad name?  I've been in the childcare field for about 10 years now, so I have come across some doozies.  Some of my personal favorites are:  Starbright, Fantasy, Princess, Prince, Neveah (heaven spelled backwards) Diamond, Harley, Sunshine and the best one..... drumroll please.....Abcde.  Yes folks, that is the frist five letters of the alphabet and pronounced Ab-see-dee.  Abcde is my dad's favorite and nothing would make him happier than for us to name our daughter Abcde.  Noel and I aren't too keen on Abcde, but were thinking more about Mnopq (pronounced Nop-que, with a silent M).

I think if we all talk to our parents they'll tell us the names we were almost given.  My mom says that she was almost named Bulgeria, but they decided on Barbara instead- thank goodness.  If it were up to my dad, my oldest brother would be Wolfgang, my other brother would be Joel, and I would have been Ann Marie.  Either way my name would have been normal.  But regardless of what I was named, none of my family calls me Briana.  To them, I am known as Annie.  Not sure why, but I was born, and Annie it was.  Now to complicate things a little further, one of my Aunts and Uncles and their family (you know who you are) all thought my real name was Brianne (since I was known to them by Annie).  It wasn't until about three years ago, they realized it was Briana.  All this time I just thought that was their special pet name for me.  It is amazing that I never developed multiple personalities from all these different names.

Noel Ray was named after his two grandfathers and I was named Briana Rene just because they liked it.  I can live with that.  So with all this talk of names, you might wonder if we put more serious thought into what our child's name will be.  The answer to that is no, not really.  So for now, our child will still be known as Bueford or Beulah.