Smay Days: Playing the Name Game

Sophronia, Sophronia
Bo, Bophronia
Banana, Fanna Foe, Fophronia
Me, My, Moe, Mophronia
Sophronia!

Wow, that's going to go over really well in a kindergarten classroom! Anyone who has ever attempted to name a child knows what I am currently going through. I always thought that I would name my first girl after my mother and grandmother, who have been the biggest female influences in my life. Since I got pregnant, I realized what a challenge I had set myself up for.

Let's start with my grandmother's name: Florence Mary. Florence is my sister's first name, but she goes by Kelly and has told me she wouldn't mind if I used Florence. The issue is, that even though I know "Grandma Chic" names are coming back into style, I worry that my baby girl won't be able to rock a name like Florence. It gets even worse when I imagine my elementary age little girl being called Flo-baby or Flossy by her fellow classmates. All of that aside, I still don't feel quite right about using my sister's name even if she doesn't go by it. That leaves Mary, which is the name of my parents' cat.

Let's move on to my mother: Susanne Waring. I have the same name as my mother, but have always gone by my first and middle name when around family. My mother is Susanne and I am Susanne May (Smay). However, as I got older, somehow people morphed me into Susanne and I didn't correct them. I still answer to both and don't prefer one over the other. I like my name, but have never imaged using it for the first name of my child...not sure why. Plus, Ethan, Ethan, Susanne, and Susanne could get a little confusing (it's slightly different from my family's Sam, Sammy, Susanne, and Susanne May). That leaves me with Waring Wirt. Enough said.

When I look back into the family trees of Ethan and my family, I found a lot of female name "winners": Sophronia, Blue Bell, Slingluff, Eugenia, Agnes, Leota, Force, Mildred, Nutt, and the list goes on. I thought I had found a good one when I saw Rosalie, but then realized (thanks to the help of my sister) that this name has recently spiked in popularity because Rosalie is a character in the Twilight series. Yuck.