Why did you call me that?
I don't mean to be offensive to someone who name their child Christopher Robin and then call him Sam, but this is how I feel.
What you name your child should be what you call your child. I understand that Michael may be Mike and Kathryn may be Katie or Kate someday, but why would I name him Michael and then call him Tony? If I wanted a son named Tony, I would have simply called him Anthony Michael, not Michael Anthony, right?
So -- that being said, I have a Michael Anthony, Kathryn Leigh, Emily Rose and Charlotte Elizabeth. Every name has a back story and I thought some of you who have nothing better to do with your time, might be interested to know about it.
Michael is my Dad and my brother. Michael Oliver is my Dad and Michael James is my brother (Mom didn't believe in Jrs.) Growing up it was Big Mike and Little Mike. (It's still Little Mike, even though he's 55 years old). To me, my brother will never be a Michael, he'll always be a Mike. So it was simple for me to call them Dad, Mike and Michael. Keeps it all straight in my head. Not so easy for my family. So, when we first brought Michael up there, they called him Teeny Mike. Big Mike, Little Mike and Teeny Mike. Just this summer, Michael went for a week and they decided to call him Tex. (They're in Indiana, we're in Texas, get it?). So now he has a family nickname, which is fine with me. Anthony, his middle name, is from Floyd and Floyd's Dad. You see, Floyd is a Jr. and his entire family calls him Tony, but he'll forever be Floyd to me. So, Michael Anthony is a nod to both sides of our family. (Plus it flows nicely, don't you think?)
Kathryn Leigh --- Well, it turns out that I have an Aunt named Catherine and a great-grandma named Catherine, but I didn't know that when I named her. I love Katharine Hepburn and thought it was an elegant and beautiful name. (Floyd got no choice at all with the first children's names, I had them picked out when I was 12). I held up two signs for Floyd about a month before she was born one said Katharine and the other said Kathryn -- he got to choose the spelling. (Wasn't that gracious of me?). He picked Kathryn (2 syllables, not 3, like her Kinder teacher tried to tell her) and the Leigh is a shortened version of my mother's name - Leatrice. I think it's a beautiful combination of names. So, Floyd's family kind of got left out on that one.
Emily Rose -- This is the first child that Floyd got to name, because, of course, I wasn't having any more than a boy and a girl when I was 12! We were eating breakfast at a restaurant and the little girl next to us was an Emily. I thought that was a pretty name, and kind of latched onto it. We were on our way out to his sister's house to tell her about the baby when we were eating. I then switched to Emma because I thought it was prettier, but he didn't like that. I tried for months to get him to name her Charlotte, but he said it made him think of a pig. (Yes, I know, Wilber is the big, but this is Floyd we're talking about here). Rose comes from his beloved grandmother and I think it's a gorgeous name. I was all for Rose being her first name, but other than Mary or Marie we couldn't come up with something that flowed well with it as a first name. I thought Rosemary would be pretty as a first name, but when he was holding her in the birthing room, I told him it was his choice (must have been the drugs) and he said, I think she looks like and Emily Rose. (She actually looked like a squished up red bug, but go figure). I have come to love the name Emily Rose, and so that one is a nod to his Grandmother and some little girl in a restaurant we don't know. My family got left out of that one so we're even :)
Now that we were through with kids, names just weren't important. I always thought we'd name another boy Luke (after his uncle) but since no more were coming, it was a concern.....right.... no more were coming.
SURPRISE! Now there's another one. Floyd was really hoping for a boy, and when I told him it was another girl, his response was - Man, I never get anything I want! Petulant, don't you think? He makes beautiful girls though, and since I'd been doing girls for 9 years, I was relieved to be doing another one.
So, the dilemma of a name. I decided I had to push for Charlotte again because I just love that name. I think Charlotte Rose would be gorgeous but we already had a Rose... Well, we were back to the pig argument again, so I laid off for awhile. We decided that Elizabeth would be good. It's his Mother's middle name, his grandmother's middle name and my grandma was Lizzie (so, kind of like Elizabeth). HOWEVER, what to go with that? Grace was the choice. So, we're trying to decide ... Elizabeth Grace? Grace Elizabeth? Rachel Elizabeth? Elizabeth Marie? I threw out Gianna which is Jane in Italian, but Floyd thought it didn't fit our family style. So, she's born and we have no name for her.
It got so bad that I was filling out paperwork and had to write Baby Girl Fazi because we had no name for her. Finally after three nights of no sleep due to being in labor and the birth, I looked at him and said, Can we please call her Charlotte? If you think you can look at your daughter and not think of a pig, I would really appreciate naming her Charlotte. (See? I've learned something after 15 years of marriage, sneak attack when they're tired and doing it sweetly) He capitulated and Charlotte Elizabeth (that's a long one) was named.
Charlotte is named after Charlotte Grunow, a dear woman to us who lived down the street. She is struggling with Alzheimer's and is in a special care facility now. But when she lived down at the end of the street, my kids would run down to give her a hug, and she is the first person outside of the family to receive a visit from Emily in her stroller. Grammy Grunow is dear to all of us and we took her to tea to meet her namesake. See picture below.
The funny thing is when he filled out the insurance paperwork, the card came with her name spelled Charolette (he's a phonics kind of guy). So I laughed at him, then I went to the doc and she asked me to spell her name and I couldn't do it without stopping to think, because I was spelling it the way Floyd did. That's sad! We've got it now.
Emily calls her Char-latte (like a coffee drink) and Floyd thought that Lot-tee-dah was pretty cute. Mostly, I call her Emily ... Michael ... Kathryn ... whatever..you know who I mean! Now that's a long name.
So --- there you have it. Jane Marie Michelle Kronewitter Fazi and Floyd Anthony Fazi, Jr. have named their children and hopefully we will not have to make another choice any time soon! (I can help name my grandchildren though .... ) Many years from now.
If you have interesting stories about names of your children, or your name for that matter, please share it through the comments section of this blog.
God bless us all, no matter what our names.
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