N-A-Y-M-E-Z

I take names very seriously when I have a child. It seems some parents just pick a few consonants at random (close your eyes and point?) and then throw in a few vowels in to make it pronouncable.

dfj turns into Fajden or Fayjden or Dafej. I'm all for creativity, but seriously folks. I imagine school teachers saying, "Is that spelled R-O-B-E-R-T?" and the kid replies "R-A-H-B-U-H-R-T." Parents get creative in all the wrong ways, in my opinion. Children's hairstyles and names are not the way to express your individuality!

For example:

* I knew a grandmother a couple years back who was VERY proud to show pictures of her grandson, Anakin. I thought to myself, "That boy sure has a bright future ahead of him!"

* In junior high, my brother had a friend named Konden. He was lucky to be good looking, popular and very witty or he probably would have committed suicide by age 13. Teenagers can be brutal and a name like "KONDEN" isn't going to help, for heaven's sake. Who wouldn't slip up and say the wrong thing?

* My brother-in-law is named Mikle. Pronounced Michael. (He would say, "Pronounced MIKLE.") He told me a few weeks ago that one reason his dad chose that spelling was so it couldn't be turned into Michelle. Ironically, he told me this right after I called him Michelle. So much for that theory. Instead of becoming just Michelle, he is now Michelle, Mickel and Mickley.

So I go the boring route and I'm very happy with it. I like my kids to have a sort of heritage behind their names. I thought Thomas was a safe name for one of the twins until a few weeks back when he started mispronouncing his name.

The T sounds like a D.
The O sounds like a UH.

You put it together. I hope this self-inflicted nickname doesn't last.