I never thought I would struggle the way a did when we had to pick our son, Cassius’s name but from a young age I was pretty sure what I was going to name my kids.
The thing I didn’t ever think about was that my husband would have to also be on board with the names, well our kids are half his too. My daughter’s name was not as straight forward as I thought it would be but defiantly much easier than with Cassi.
I always wanted to call my daughter after my amazing gran, Flora. It had been in my head for as long as I could remember that if I was having a daughter I HAD to name her after the greatest woman I had ever known but my husband had other ideas.
The name flora had meant something different to him at school, he said “that’s what we called the sluts because they spread their legs like Flora (margarine)” well, thanks love for ruining that for me. Its funny how you don’t realise how many people who have wronged you in your life until you actually have to name someone. After looking after many children in my years working in a nursery and the little toe rags that had run my ragged, I had a very long list of names I just couldn’t call my children as the names on that list would send me shaking for the hills, pretty sure some of them are a trigger for PTSD.
My husband also wanted something that wasn’t “common” but also wasn’t “weird” like Princess BananaHammock or Crapbags, it seemed he was going to be harder to please and though I love my husband dearly, he is not easily swayed.
We knew we were having a girl as Rory just didn’t want the surprise and if I’m honest I wanted to know so I could be organised. So, we were going through all these new names as we couldn’t decide on any of the names we had liked for a while. I struggled to pick a name for someone I hadn’t met yet, what if we pick a name and they are born and look nothing like what you would expect. An example of this is my youngest sister, Hannah.
Hannah was always going to be Hazel, my mum and dad were so set on the name Hazel (my aunts name) that they didn’t even think of anything else. I was 8 and was a massive neighbour’s fan at the time and a new character had just arrived on the street, a Hannah Robertson (Helens granddaughter) and I was obsessed. I kept telling my mum that Hannah was a better name, but they wanted Hazel.
The day my sister was born, my dad left the hospital room to use the pay phone to tell everyone Hazel Jayne Noble had been born and all was good. They even made an announcement at the National MOD that my parents had welcomed little Hazel.
My dad rushed back to the room and found my mum in bits, he thought maybe the hormones had kicked in, but something was off, so he asked if she was ok.
My mum then cried “Hannah, she is a Hannah not a Hazel!” So, my dad then had to make a quick dash and correct everyone that in fact she was Hannah Jayne and believe me, that name suit her much better than what Hazel would have.
Anyway, back to me! I was working in BMW and we had a lovely temp called Coralyn working for us and as I was writing her name, I had one of though strange maternal feelings that Cora was the name we had to call our daughter. It was as close to Flora as I could get, and it was a traditional name but something you didn’t here much of. (Saying that there are 3 Cora’s in my daughters’ class, way to be original!)
So, Cora stuck, and when she was born we knew we had made the right choice as she is just my perfect little Cora Bear.
Cassi was a different story. I just couldn’t think of any names I liked and again we knew he was to be a boy and I just couldn’t stop thinking of all the little terrors I had looked after over the years. My husband was also determined that I had chosen Cora that he would chose the boys name and OMG the names he was coming out with!
A name that stuck for a long time was Rocco, and it was a name we agreed on and it was a bit different to fit Rory’s name criteria. Then one day, I just couldn’t bring myself to call my child Rocco. No idea why but I just knew my son shouldn’t have that name, my husband still goes on about it as Cassius would have suited Rocco.
We have a good friend called Kassam, but we call him Kass, his name came up in conversation and Rory said he had been thinking of Cassius for a name, but we could call him Cass or Cassi for short if I was struggling with the idea. I did like Cassius, but I was so worried about my west coast islander parents pushing their grandson along Tobermory main street and having to introduce Cassius because my nephews are called Iain and Donnie, so Cassius seemed very exotic, so like me they would call him Cassi. The only people who actually call Cassius his full name is his dad.
So that’s my little tribe, Cora and Cassius. There names do suit them, and I quite like telling people how we got those names. I think if we were to have another (we aren’t) that we would go more traditional, I have always liked James or Florence.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet.”
Do you have names picked out? How did your little ones get their name?