We escaped it in preschool somehow, but now in kindergarten, it will hit us hard. Hopefully we haven't cursed our child and she can rise above it and not blog about it in 30 years about how much she hates her parents for doing it to her.
EE has a popular name. A very popular name. It starts with E and rhymes with Bemma. In 2003, the year in which she was born, it was the #1 girls name--I printed that fact out to put in her baby book.
When we walked in the door to kindergarten round-up last night, the secretary was asking the kids' names so she could direct us to the right group. When EE said her name, the secretary said, "Oh, E__a Buttery?" No, not us. She could've gone through three more E's before our name came up. That's right, in a class of 90 kids, there are 5 girls named Emma. That's 5% of the class.
Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why did you give your child a popular name if you didn't want this to happen to her?" Well, you see, for us it is a family name. The name has been on both sides of the family for over 100 years. My dad's parents were Ed and Emma. MIL's parents were Ed and Emma. How could you not use this lovely family name? I have very fond memories of my Grandma Emma who was a German farm woman born in the early 1900's. She could sew anything and made 100's of quilts in her life. She made awesome strawberry jam. There were always cookies and ice cream at her house. She was soft-spoken, but had a presence about her. Dh's Grandma Emma is still alive, although I don't think Emma has had the chance to meet her. Our E has a special piece of jewelry coming to her from her namesakes once she is old enough to appreciate them. From my Grandma, she will get her beautiful engagement ring which my aunt passed down to her. From dh's Grandma, she will get a necklace that her husband bought her while serving overseas in WWII. Our E is reminded all the time who she is named for and why. We hope this legacy will be stronger than any bad feelings she has about being one of 5 in the same class.
I will say that I screamed at the TV when Rachel from Friends named her baby Emma soon before our baby was due. We knew that was a front-runner for our girl's name and knew what that meant--many people would follow in her footsteps. Why, oh why, couldn't she have chosen Ruth (her other name she talked about on the show)? I've actually had morons ask me if I named my child after Friends. Um, no.
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3 comments:
The neat thing is, the other 4 E's were probably named after Rachel's baby on friends and YOUR E can say it's a family name ;)
Do kids buy that sort of thing?
Anyway, when SC started kindy we bought her a backpack. Since that time we've had to buy 4 additional backpacks because of breakage and wear. This year, I bought her an LL Bean bag and the thing still looks brand new. That's the only advice I have for kindy. Oh, and they learn to talk back more because they get to meet "interesting" kids.
That is a good tip about the backpack, I'm surprised her Target one has lasted through two years of preschool (although the zipper pull is broken and the zipper is coming undone--but its still usable).
Ah yes, we can't control who they are exposed to in school. What fun! :)
My real name was the number one name from 1971-198something. There were five of us in my fifth grade class, and another 5 in my sorority. It's OK, but I will name a daughter Panda or Uzbeckistan. Found you in a random blog trail...
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