What’s in a Name?

There is a lot of name calling in my family. The good kind. But if  you don’t pay attention, you could easily become confused.

For instance, I am a grandmother. One set of grandkids call me Grandma. Another set call me Namma. And the third set call me Mama. Then there is my dear husband who is known as Grandpa or Papa, depending on which kid is calling him. Try keeping all of that straight when you are signing birthday cards.

I guess it runs in the family because I called my Mom’s parents Mother and Gramps. Don’t ask. My Dad’s parents were the traditional Grandma and Grandpa. But our own kids called my parents Mama and Papa.

Are you confused yet?

Then there are the nicknames. Our oldest daughter’s name is Julie, but she has been Auntie Jewy, Dewy, or Dulie to various nieces and nephews. Our son Michael gets shortened to UncaMike, all one word. Don’t call him Mikey or he may beat you up. Our daughter Jordan tried to teach the kids to call her Auntie Jordie, but they couldn’t say it, so it became Auntie Dodie (or Didi, for one in particular). Now everyone in the family refers to her as Dodie. Or The Dode. I stress the word family where this name is concerned. Our youngest daughter, Kelsey, thought up her own nickname at the age of two when she couldn’t pronounce her own name. She has been known as Tessie ever since. Incidentally, the name Tess actually means “fourth child”. Who knew?

Some of the grandchildren got nicknamed too. Emily became Emmy Lou, Caleb became Caleb-Doodle, Reece became Reecie-Peecie, Nikolas became Nikky-Noodle, and Jairus became Jai-Jai. Joshua and Elijah will be thankful one day that their names didn’t become distorted.

I suppose every family has their quirks and I’ve just shared one of ours.