Name Game

Yesterday I was driving the kids home from the playground (where we coincidentally ran into their friends Shaun and Dawn from daycare), when Miranda asked me, "Are there other Smith families?" (Remember, for the sake of protecting the innocent, we do not use real last names on this site. So suspend some disbelief and pretend that our last name is Smith.)

"Of course," I said. "Uncle Matt's last name is Smith, so he and Aunt Ann and Cousins Riley and Piper are Smiths. And Nana and Papoo are Smiths. And, really, there are even Smiths that are not related to you -- sometimes when people first immigrated to America, they changed their last names so they could fit in better. In fact, Papoo's ancestors fall into that category -- they changed their names to Smith when they came over from Poland."

"Oh," Miranda said thoughtfully. "So people change their names sometimes?"

"Oh, sure," I replied.

She thought about this for a moment, then said, "Well, if that's the case, I want to change my name to Gwen." This is kind of funny, because that had been our intent when we named her before she was born -- we gave her the name Miranda because it sounded better with Smith (being polysyllabic), but we figured we would call her Gwen (or, more specifically Guin) after her middle name. Somehow, however, the name Miranda stuck.

"And I want to be called Shaun!" Xavier chorused.

"No," I said with a smile. "You can't name yourself after someone from school. It would be too confusing, for one thing."

Undaunted, Xavier replied, "Well, then, I want to be called Apple."

My husband and I didn't really expect these names to persist (and they still may not), but Adam was a little surprised when the kids got up this morning and still insisted upon being called Guin and Apple. "Guin" had even decided how she wanted to spell it (although I noticed on her papers from school that her teacher had her spelling it "Gwen", so we'll see if that ends up being the persistent spelling).

Adam is okay with Miranda going by Guin (or Gwen), but he is less enamored with calling Xav "Apple," so he had a chat with our son this morning about names: "You see, Xavier, an apple is really a fruit -- not really a person's name."

"That's okay, Daddy," Xavier replied. "I'm fruity!"


In other news, Xavier has come up with a new safety rule: "Don't play with matches in a car that is on fire."


Thank you to everyone who has given me clues on where I might take Guin/Gwen/Miranda fossil-hunting, as well as those who have given her gifts and encouragement to pursue her love of science.