Saturday, April 4, 2009

What's in a name?

Naming a child is sometimes a very tough decision for parents. You may find that a name that you previously thought was a good name has countless possibilities of mean nicknames that your child may run into in school. And who wants to be responsible for that? But then I thought, you could name a kid anything and it really just depends on the attitude of the child on whether or not they dislike their name and their parents for naming them that. The greatest example of this is my own brother. I don't know why my parents named my brother Richard when our last name is Head. Believe me, he received teasing from kids from kindergarten to his senior year. But you know what? He has such a good attitude about his name that it doesn't even bother him. It never has. In fact, he just laughs with them and eventually people respected him for it. Lately we've been receiving a bit of crap for wanting to name our son Sunny, and it's starting to get really frustrating. First of all, people who have already had children have already named them. They had their opportunity to give their kids names that they liked. They may have been influenced by popular names of that era or family names, etc. But once you've had your chance of naming children, then you're done. You're welcome to give suggestions of names that you like and approve of, but when it comes down to it, it's not your place to judge other people for naming their children certain names. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am sometimes bugged by the way people spell their kids' names, but I recognize that it's their decision and that's that. We're naming our son Sunny. Unless Noah is inspired miraculously while blessing Sunny to name him something else, then that's what we're sticking to. We feel strongly about it and our minds will not be changed. I really do appreciate that people care enough about my unborn child to be worried about him, but he's going to be a strong boy who is not ashamed of his name. This post kinda sounds harsh, but I'm starting to feel frustrated and sad that people doubt our decision when it comes to our own child. Have a little more faith is what I say.