What's in a name?

I have been thinking about names this week, for one reason and another, that I may or may not share with you at some point!  I started off this blog wanting to keep a small amount of anonymity and decided not to share the names of my kids.  I've been interested to see how others refer to their family members.  Some are happy to share names while others use ages, some have plenty of photos, others have none.  Being in Australia, I'm also intrigued by how names are shortened/lengthened/adapted.

Based on my musings this week, I thought that I might just share their names afterall.

No1 Boy (or Biggest Boy) is called Archie.  He was named after my maternal grandfather, who I loved dearly as a child, even though we didn't see him very often.  He was in a long line of Archies, although he was properly an Archibald, and didn't have any sons of his own to pass the name on to.  My Archie went through a phase when he was about 3 of wanting to be Archibald as he thought his name was too short in magnets on the fridge!  We also liked the fact that according to one baby name book, Archie was first used in East Anglia and then became a popular name in Scotland - our Archie was born in East Anglia and then moved to Scotland - how perfect?  At the moment he has decided that it really isn't a very cool name and wishes we had called him something different.  His middle name is John which covers his Dad and both of our Dad's - imaginative!

No2 Boy is Jonathan.  Named because it was my favourite boys name but also my brother's name.  His middle name is Thomas for Husband's maternal grandfather.  I think it's a good solid name, however I think I am probably the only person who actually uses his full name!  When he started Play Group in Scotland at age 2years and 10 months, he met his best friend, Nathan.  They thought it was fantastic to have such similar names although right from the start Nathan always referred to Jonathan as 'Jon'.  Despite being born in Scotland both of Nathan's parents are from London so imagine it said with a London accent!  Since being in Australia he has been anything from 'Jon', to 'Jonny' to 'Jonno'.  I particularly like how the guys at tennis actually correct me when I say his name - "Oh, you mean JONNO!" !!!

No3 Boy is Joseph after my paternal grandfather, another lovely man who called me his wee princess - if only he'd seen the tomboy I was...!  His middle name is David as a tribute to John's wee brother that he never knew as he died after only a few days.  Regularly referred to as 'Jofus' by most kids, he decided he would be called 'Joe' once his wee sister could speak and decreed it to be so.  This lasted until he went to school and learnt to spell and write his name.  He now has phases and we always have to check.  I tend to play safe and stick with Joseph.  To be honest he gets 'Monkey Boy' more than anything else...

Miss M is in fact Meg, short for Margaret.  She was named after my mother, her mother, her mother etc, etc.  For some reason my mother decided to break with tradition and named me for her sister.  She was always going to be Meg rather than Margaret as it is a bit of a mouthful and fairly old-fashioned.  Again though, where we lived in Scotland was closely associated with St Margaret so nicely fitting.  Her middle name Hannah is a reference to John's maternal Viking roots!  Along with Meg, she gets Peg and Peggy and occasionally Margaret (mostly from Grandpa!).  She loved that despite being the youngest and smallest in her Kinder class, her teacher, the wonderful Mrs B, called her 'Megatron'!

Smallest Boy has a very grand, Scottish name - Robert Alexander.  As a friend's mother pointed out, named after 2 great Scottish kings.  As you can imagine, using family names meant that we had pretty much run out by this point!  My aunt has done a great deal of research on my Mum's side of the family and did come across a few Robert's, some fairly scandalous stories to go with them too.  However, this is really a wee family joke based on my Dad's family tracing themselves back to Robert the Bruce, who again with the local connection, is buried in Dunfermline Abbey.  The Alexander is a lame attempt to have my name in the mix somewhere.  It took us quite a while to name him, and the aforementioned Nathan had suggested "Bob" (a la Blackadder) within a couple of hours which we had dismissed, however it didn't take long at all until he was indeed 'Bob-the-Baby'!  As those of you who know the child will be aware, this is no longer acceptable and you are likely to be told "My not Bob, my 'Obert" in no uncertain terms.  I'm sure at some point he will get Bob again or more likely 'Robbo' if we stay Down Under!

You might be thinking that John didn't seem to have much input in their names, but due to all his suggestions being based on Star Wars I eventually banned him.

I love the fact that all their names reference someone special, someone to be inspired by and to look up to.  It will be interesting to see what they name their kids in time.  Joseph says his will be called "Pass", "Shoot", and "Score".

Have a great weekend!