What's in a Name?

I'm weird about names. I've hashed and rehashed names I wanted to use for my children when I had them. Of course, since I haven't been able to have children of my own, that didn't work out so well. The kids I have or am adopting either came with names, or chose new names for themselves.

I also know my next dog's name years before I get them. My current dog, Louie Lobo, is the greatest, and luckily, Louie suits him. I chose the name 8 years ago while living in New Mexico and going to the University of New Mexico where the mascot is Louie Lobo. My Louie is only 2 years old. When he was -6 years old I had a dog bone stocking made for him with his name embroidered across the top. At the time, I had my sweet rotty, Joe Vandal, named for the University of Idaho Vandals. (I went to school there once too.) Knowing that I've graduated from BSU you're asking, am I going to name my next dog Bronco? No. My next dog will be Sourdough Sam after the mascot of the San Francisco 49ers. Before I got into naming them after sports team mascots, my dogs were Gypsy and Serenade. Both names came from Steve Miller songs. My best friend and roommate at the time had a cat that we named Shroom Yoka. OK, we justified the Shroom part in that he was truly mushroom colored. I'm not sure where Yoka came from, but you can probably guess our state of mind at the time.

Back to the kids. When I was younger, I wanted to give all my kids names that would be different, unique. But these days, that's what everyone does. I've got nieces and nephews with names like Tierra, Shea, Sochie, Wyatt, and Blaise. I decided I wanted my kids to have ordinary names...besides, ordinary wasn't ordinary anymore. I can't really tell you what some of my foster kids names have been, but they've definitely been unique!! Some even hard to say and spell. So I decided I wanted to use family names. But I ran into a few snags there too...I had names like Retis, Neva, Verde, Pauline, and Winnie to choose from. But I did find some that I liked...my great-grandparents were McKinley (before it was popular) and Cordia. I liked those. And I had a Samuel, William, Denise, Andrew, Matthew, and Ann to choose from as well.

But then, I couldn't have kids. When I got Allee, she had already chosen the name she wanted. Her birth name was very Catholic. She'd chosen Mackenzie Alleesun for her new name. Kneesaa wanted to keep her name because it was her siblings who named her, not her mother. She simply added my middle name to her name. (Kneesaa came from Star Wars, Princess Kneesaa of the Ewoks!) My 3 year old will keep part of his name, we already call him by his middle name. So his middle will become his first, and I'm giving him McKinley for a new middle name. My 8 year old worked with me on her name. She didn't want to keep her birth name, so she's taking Cordia for a first name, and my best friend's name, Angelique, for a middle name, and we call her Annie. It's only my 2 year old who I have completely renamed myself. And it didn't turn out as I expected. I tried several of my favorites on him for about a month, and finally decided he was an Andrew. But the middle name was even harder. Who do I name him after? I chose the middle name of the man who was my father figure growing up, the person who if I were to be able to choose a father, it would have been him. I wanted to honor him, and his middle name goes well with Andrew, I think. Andrew Atkins.

I don't know why names are such an obsession with me. They always have been. All my stuffed animals had carefully chosen names. I always renamed my Cabbage Patch dolls. (I had 16 of them.) I guess everyone has to have their thing, and this is mine.