What's in a name?

Alright. I feel the need to address the name issue.

Joan. It's such a simple name, but it inspires an anusually strong response from people.

Joan was Mike's pick when I was pregnant with John. He wanted Stephen as a boy's first name, but I won that one. Nothing against Steve, but in every dream I had while I was pregnant, I was having a boy named John, so to me, Stephen just didn't fit. Well, there was one dream where he was a girl - but still named John. But in the delivery room, we agreed that I could have John, if he could have Joan in the event of a girl.

That's the basic root of Joan. He likes the name, because everyone knows it and knows how to spell it, but it's not used anymore, so she'll be the only Joan in her class. This matters to someone named Mike, I guess - he was one of about six. I can't relate. I was the only Megan I knew until high school.

Boy's names were easy this time. Mike has always wanted a boy named Dave. My only demand was that Glenn be in the mix. I like it as a first name, but it was agreed to as a second name, making our boy's choice David Glenn. Matthew and Tom were also in the running.

However, just like last time, the girl's name was the hang-up. Mike wasn't willing to budge from Joan until the very end. As in, after she was born. So she was Baby Walchuk for the first two days of her life.

But coming up with an alternative proved impossible. Given more time to think, she probably would have been named something else. He decided he didn't like our original compromise name of Sarah anymore - too common. We thought about Laura - Vicki's middle name. We even thought about calling her Laura Ann - both of Vicki's middle names - in honour of the two Walchuk Christmas babies. I'm sure they'll be able to comiserate about their moms' poor timing later in life. She was almost Laura Mae, but we thought it sounded too hickish. That's when Catherine entered the picture. Laura Catherine. A little classier. Other names which came up were Kathleen - the "K" sounds nice with Walchuk. Jennie, after Mike's great Grandma. We both really liked it, but Mike didn't want Jennifer, and thought it was too weired to call her Jennie as an actual name, even though that was his g grandma's actual legal name. (she's from Newfoundland.) But, given a couple more days to think, she probably would have been a Jennie.

So, as I was discharged, it was down to two - Laura Catherine and Joan Catherine. Discharge was our deadline for a name. We had to hand in her OHIP form, and Mike didn't want to hand it in blank, even though you're allowed to. He thought it would be bad luck or something.

So we were standing at the nurse's station, baby in one hand, blank OHIP form in the other, and Mike says - "you decide." I didn't want to be eternally blamed for chosing the wrong name (my pick was Laura) so I said "Paper, rock scissors." It was in the hands of fate.

Fate chose Laura, best out of three.

The nurse told us we'd chosen wisely, we filled in the form, and left.

We got as far as the hospital lobby before Mike turned to me and said he was sad - in his mind, she was a Joan, and really didn't like the name Laura as much as he thought he did. What am I supposed to say to that? I was there with John - he was always going to be John to me, and the thought of naming him Steve made me really sad. So we turned around, went back to the nurse's station, made her get out the white-out, and we changed her name to Joan. As we were doing it, the nurse called to two others walking past "guys - they're going with JOAN." And said it with a surprising level of disgust.

But Joan it is. We didn't even register her untill the last minute, in case we decided to change our minds. But Mike thought that would really be bad luck, and he'd already sent out birth announcements and word had already spread, and we already had a blanket embroidered with Joan, so it was really too late.

I don't mind the name anymore - it's grown on me over the past month. My only qualm is that it's too close to John. We justify it by pointing to John and Joan Cusack, who are siblings. Their parents got away with it, so we figure we can too. Though the first few days were very, very confusing, to say the least.

"Which one are you talking about?"
"John."
"But you said Joan."
"No, I said John."
"No, you said Joan. I heard it."
"I think I know what I said."
"This is stupid. We should have gone with Laura."

But we seem to have ironed it out. We don't get confused anymore. I thought about calling her Joanie, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't know - she's just not a Joanie. Maybe when she's a little more girly. Mike thinks her nicname should be Cat, but she's not a Cat either - not even he calls her that, and it's the reason he liked Catherine as a middle name. I think it will be much better when we have a third. We feel dumb introducing our kids as John and Joan, but John, Joan and Dave doesn't sound so goofy.

The battle for a girl' name for number three has already begun, though. Deborah is Mike's top pick right now. I still really like Shelby, even though he insists it's a boy's name. I'd say the next one will be Jennie, but I think we need to steer clear of J names for number three, or people really WILL think we're strange.