Because A Good Football Name Is Priceless

Every year, I attend all the Northwestern football games. I have a whole tradition and set of superstitions around that, which I'll share shortly. It's my fault actually that they've lost the last three games. I promise to demonstrate why soon. I have my fingers crossed that I've fixed my errors and all will be well this week when they play Iowa.

That said, I have seats behind the Northwestern bench. It's a fun view when there isn't action on the field. I love watching the players on their benches dancing during timeouts or getting the crowd revved up. I giggle watching the players keep warm on the exercise bikes on the sidelines. I watch anxiously when trainers work on players on the tables.

And of course I scan the names. Over the years, there have been some great football names on the Northwestern team. Even this year, we have a quarterback (now receiver since our main QB Dan Persa is back - yay!) named Kain Colter. Tell me that isn't just an awesome name for a quarterback. Sadly, he is upstaged this year by someone with yet a better name.

Sean McEvilly is a defensive lineman, though he isn't a starter at this point. That said, he's a redshirt freshman, so there are another three years after the rest of this season for me to hear the PA announcer tell us all about another McEvilly tackle. Seriously. McEvilly. And he's a defensive player. I love it.

So what's your favorite football name?

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Thank God I Was A Girl

I've been thinking about baby names lately (and NO not because I'm pregnant, thank you very much). I've discovered some friends who've named their children things I really love, and there are some that I just raise my eyebrows at.

When Mister Man was born, it wasn't an issue. My husband and I fairly easily settled on both boy and girl names. For Little Miss, it wasn't so easy. He rejected all sorts of good names, for various reasons, only a few of which had merit. Granted, now that I look back on it, I totally should have played the new mom card and gotten my way, but ... too late!

Thus, Little Miss is not named:

Evelyn
Isobel
Ella
Laurel
Eleanor
Madeleine
Siobhan (ok, I love that name but would never really name my daughter that, I suppose)

But it could be worse.

When I was born, I was three weeks late. No, you didn't misread that. I was THREE. WEEKS. LATE. Sorry, Mom. I was so late that my grandmother had to return the "Welcome Scorpio Baby" sign and buy a Sagittarius one -- and yes, that's a true story.

And of course my mom was in labor with me forever. Thank God doctors don't let pregnancy go on that long anymore. My poor mom. I finally popped out at 5:32pm.

And my mom's dreams were dashed.

She had waited nine years before getting pregnant with me (that's nine years of trying btw). She wanted two children. Two boys, to be specific. And she had names picked out for them. My dad apparently didn't have a say.

The first boy was going to be Douglas Frederick, nicknamed Dougie Freddie. And knowing my mom, she would have called me Dougie Freddie to this day. The second boy? Frederick Douglas -- or Freddie Dougie.

Yikes.

Fortunately, God apparently has some compassion, and neither of the children my mom bore were boys. The world was spared from a Dougie Freddie / Freddie Dougie sibling pair.

Then again, maybe this is why Mister Man was born a boy. Our girl name was Kiersten Anabel. Neither name made the cut when we were looking at names for Little Miss, just in case you're wondering.

That's Not What I Chose

Play along with my pop quiz here.

***

Years ago, I worked with a really fun woman named Val. She was in another group that I worked with regularly on my client. She had great stories about her kids and her life, and I always enjoyed spending time with Val.

One day, I sent her an email to check for accuracy (it involved technical things she was familiar with that I wasn't) and she responded with a couple minor changes. As I scanned through it, I noticed that she had changed the reference to her from Val. Instead, she had written out Valerie.

Weird. I'd known her for four or five years at that point, and she was Val. I was confused, so I asked her.

Oh. She doesn't like to be called Val; she wants to be Valerie. I felt horrible. For years and years, everyone had always known her as and had always introduced her as Val. But apparently no one had ever asked her. I felt badly, and I've called her Valerie to this day, as a person's name is theirs, not yours to change as you choose.

She still works for my company, and many people still call her Val, but I've let people I know that she prefers Valerie and shared my experience. And she also feels more comfortable stepping up and correcting people now. Good for her.

But it shouldn't have to be that way. Her name is Valerie. That's what her voicemail says, that's what her email says, and that's how she introduces herself. What's so hard about calling her by her name?

I have this same discussion every year with Mister Man's schools. I should have known better. People told me that if I gave him the name I did, people would shorten it without my permission.

And if he goes by a nickname someday, I'm totally cool with that. But if he starts out with the nickname, he can never go back. People just don't get it though, and it drives me batty. Just like Val.

The principal at his school calls him Mike*. His bus driver calls him Mikey. His aides and therapists vary between thetwo. And I correct them gently by saying things like, "Michael, say goodbye to your bus driver" or "Michael, what do you say to Ms. Barb?" It doesn't click with them.

I've tried writing on the form at the beginning of the school year that his name is MICHAEL, not Mike or Mikey, and he is not to be called by his nickname. Nope, that doesn't work.

I call his teachers and aides out on it. I ask them to please call him by his right name. That doesn't work either.

My new strategy is teaching Mister Man to correct them on his own by politely letting them know that he prefers to be called Michael (which he does -- I recently found out that he doesn't like even my nickname for him, oops!). He's a sweet kid who respects authority, so it's hard for him to stand up for himself, but it's a good skill for him to learn. Someday.

On the plus side, he starts summer school with new teachers today. Maybe this will be the place that calls him by his right name.

Do you have a name that people shorten without invitation to? Do you like it? How do you deal with it?