Girls with Boys' Names

Growing up at the only Tommie in the tri-state area, I went through several years of hating my name, to several years of accepting my name, to a few years of thinking that if I had daughters they'd have names like Alison nicknamed Sonnie and Penelope nicknamed Pete (I know, that one doesn't make any sense at all, I was 15 at the time, give me a break.)

Over the years I've come back to the state of acceptance.

I was named after my dad, Tom (duh!) and one of my mom's favorite cousins, Tommye Jean. My mother was born in Memphis, TN and lived there until she was eleven, at which time her parents moved her and eight of her eleven living siblings to Vermillion, OH.

By the time I got to college, I was okay with my name. I even still considered eventually giving a daughter a name with similar gender neutrality.

We all know how that worked out.

When I met Tom (on-line, I know!!) I refused to even meet him at first.

I was all, "Please. Do you really want to be Tom and Tommie? Give me a break."

But he wore me down and here we are.

I still really like gender neutral names, but for my girls, it didn't feel right. When Tom suggested the name Alyssa, I mentioned that it was on my list. He settled on it right then and there was no more discussion.

When I mentioned the name Olivia, he liked it and decided again, that that was it.

But sometimes...I think about those daughters I imagined when I was fifteen. I wonder how much Sonnie would hate her name. And how much Pete might want to kill me in my sleep once she hit the teen years.

I suppose this is just one more reason fifteen year olds shouldn't have babies, they usually have terrible taste in names. (Please note, I wrote USUALLY! If any of my readers, all either of them, had a child at fifteen, I'm sure he/she has a lovely, perfectly appropriate name. End note.)