Thursday, August 7

What's in a name?

Judd and I were sitting in the examining room at the doctor's office last Friday for Charlotte's 6 month check up. I began flipping through the latest issue of Parents Magazine while we waited. On the cover was a heading boasting 226 trendy names. I said to Judd, "I hope Charlotte isn't one of them." Sure enough, there was a category of "Jet Setter" names, and Charlotte was one of them. Sharing the page with Charlotte was Dakota, Florence, you get the idea - all names of places.

It isn't that we don't want Charlotte to have a trendy name, I just don't want that to be the reason we gave her that name. The reason we named her Charlotte is that I LOVE Sex and the City so much that I wanted our family to be named after the characters. You know, Carrie, Charlotte, Judd (he's Mr. Big). Yeah Right.

She is named after my father, Charles and his father, Charles. Charlotte is the feminine form of Charles. Caroline (the name Carrie is derived from) is also a feminine form of Charles. We would have named her Juddina (the feminine form of Judd) but we decided it didn't roll off of the tongue as well.

I already know of 2 little girls around Charlotte's age named Charlotte. So, I guess she might very well be known as "Charlotte D." in school rather than just "Charlotte". Sigh.

10 comments:

CBA1 said...

Maybe you should have named her Wilbur.

Love,

Dad aka Granddad

Mel said...

my mom went throught the same thing with me...she was going to name me jennifer but then she heard it was popular so she named me Melissa and my sister Jennifer (figured it had died down) and I had two other Melissa's in my class and Jenn had two other Jennifers in hers...of course Jennifer we know now was one of the most popular names of the time but when there was no internet and 19 million parenting magazines the news traveled slower.

My sister also got mad because a little girl started at Ariyana's daycare that spelled her name Ariyanna (and said it ari anna) because she wanted Ariyana to be the only one with that name and with that spelling....hmmmm

Drena said...

She'll always be the #1 Charlotte to us! :)

Aunt Sally said...

She could be named Sally. I bet that wasn't in the magazine and I certainly was not called Sally A. because there were soooo many in the class. :)

I LOVE THE NAME CHARLOTTE and I think it suits her!

Meredith said...

I don't know if it would make you feel better, but I only know your Charlotte and then a 9th grader named Charlotte! So, maybe it won't be too popular!

Sara said...

To Granddad and me it is a VERY beautiful, classy name. It is a perfect name for a CEO, Charlotte Davis. Can't think of her as having any other name now. Every Charles in every generation of Achuffs has a "Charles". I hope Charlotte will carry on this long tradition with her child as you did with yours. It is a big responsibility to give a child a name. I believe the name should have a special meaning to the givers.

Love,
Me

Al & Nina said...

A beautiful name for a beautiful baby girl. Nina

Mollypants said...

I think it's a good name...I usually read the birth announcements in the newspaper and sometimes look at names and think "Did those parents remember how much kids get teased for bad names?" or "I think those parents got that name from a Gold Club Dancer" or "Can we stop it with the boys names becoming girls names? I feel like there's no boys names left..."
My mom swore that she just wanted to name me something that wouldn't sound odd for a kid of 4 or a woman of 84. Yeah, right, I got the 2nd most popular DOG'S name and the #1 choice of fake butter popcorn topping names.
In all seriousness though, I think Charlotte is a great name for a lot of reasons, one of which being that you CANT really make it into a nickname - it's just who she is, no more, no less.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hi Carrie! I was reading Rachel's blog and found a link to your site. I spent the morning reading through your awesome writing! Charlotte is absolutely beautiful (we still have her birth announcement on our fridge at home), and the name suits her perfectly. I hope all is well down in Georgia :) Megan Blessing