What's In A Name?

          What’s in a name?  A lot.  It’s the first gift a parent gives their child, so it better be good. 

          Play along with me here.  If you heard the name Milo Horndecker, what image comes to your mind?  A nerd-geek of the first degree, right?  Well, maybe Milo looks like Matthew McConaughey!  Don’t judge.  Or if you heard the name Adonis Constantinople…you think Greek god right?  But maybe there is your nerd-geek.

          Take myself, f’rinstance.  During the five months I was in foster care after birth, I was Beverly.  When I was adopted, I got a whole brand new birth certificate that says Judith Kay.  Side note here…there is only one person on this planet besides my mother who can call me that.  Anybody else who uses that name gets The Look and probably a smack in the face.  Just saying.

          I’m going to break the rule I have about only using nicknames here and use real names because the story can’t be told otherwise, and it’s a story worth telling.

          Captain and I made a deal when we were pregnant the first time.  He got to pick the boy name and I could pick the girl name.   

          Anyway, for our first pregnancy, Captain picked Reginald Patrick for a boy name.  I was a little surprised because that isn’t exactly a common Upper Midwest name.  His reasoning was that if this boy wanted to be a doctor, lawyer, stock broker, etc., Reginald was a good and powerful name for that.  If, on the other hand, he wanted to be a farmer, trucker, welder, or mechanic then Reggie was a good name for that.  Patrick was a given in order to honor Captain’s brother.  I find it extremely interesting that I had Shannon picked as a first name at that time…Shannon Patricia.  On a side note, Captain’s mom had also picked Shannon for a girl name when she was pregnant with their first child.  With Reggie’s daughter named Shannon, I have to assume that the cosmic universe felt Shannon was a good Brogan name.

          When Brogan Baby #1 came along, we were happy to name him Reginald Patrick, and he does go by Reggie.  Unless he is in trouble and his mother is middle-naming him!

          When we were pregnant the second time, it was my turn to pick the boy name and Captain got to pick the girl name.  He didn’t spend a lot of time on it…as in none…for a couple of reasons.  Girls weren’t common in the family at that time, plus the ultrasound tech blurted out that it was a boy before we could say we didn’t want to know.  So now it was ALL my decision.  Whoop, whoop! 

          I will confess that I had a couple of missteps in the name picking department.  I really like the name Logan and was trying to convince Captain about it.  He just looked at me and said, “Wait for it.”  Ten seconds later the light bulb went on that the poor child would be Logan Brogan.  Not cool.  Fine.  Plan B was Cody Michael.  We were both good with that.

          Imagine our surprise when Baby Brogan #2 arrived and was announced as a girl.  Now what?!  We had no name picked out and all clothing/décor was the wrong color!  There went all my thought and consideration for names and now Captain was up to bat.  He looked at her for a minute and said, “She looks like a Mary Ann.  Okay, I’m going back home to do chores now.”

          Okay, that was a fine name, and I went with it. 

          Fast forward three years to preschool registration and all those forms you have to fill out.  Captain was sitting with me at the table as I filled out paper after paper. 

First name:  Mary.  Middle name:  Ann.  Last name:  Brogan.

Captain looks at me and says, “That’s not right.” 

Yes it is, dude.  No, it’s not.  Yes, it is.  Back and forth.  I finally dragged out her birth certificate that I had filled out at the hospital.  First name:  Mary.  Middle name:  Ann.  Last name:  Brogan.  See…I am right and you are wrong. 

He growled at me and said, “That’s not what I meant!  Her name is supposed to be MaryAnn, no middle name, Brogan.”  Well, buddy boy, maybe if you hadn’t ditched me at the hospital to go do chores, we could have hashed this out three years ago!  To be honest, I call her Molly anyway.  None of us, just for reference, have ever called her Princess as a nickname, so from now on in this blog, she will be Molly.  Make note so you don’t get confused. 

Even though I did not get to name either one of the children, I think their names fit their personalities just fine.  Good job, Captain!