Family Names

I don’t talk about my Hubby much in my postings. A blog is an opportunity to rant and, quite frankly, Hubby just doesn’t drive me insane the way my kids do.

Another reason that I try to avoid referring to him by name is because his name is Fred, just like my son. It gets really confusing in a blog to keep track of which guy I'm referring to unless I refer to him as Hubby. Oh, and he hates that nickname. Even better.

Do Hubby and I still get on together well after 17 years of marriage? At the risk of jinxing us, I'd say yeah. It helps that we're both self-employed, working with the same customers. I'm the website lady and Fred does the IT stuff, which basically means I work remotely from home and he's out on-site for the most part. All of his customers absolutely ADORE me, and they frequently tell him so.

His former boss’ boss is now one of our clients. He’s sorta cool to Fred, but thinks I am the bomb. I don’t know how Fred feels about that, but I’m pretty down with it.

Getting back to the name thing, you know both Hubby and son are named Fred. My father-in-law's name? Fred. Cousin? Fred. It drives everyone nuts at family get-togethers.

When our first daughter was born, we were hoping to name her after my mom (Joyce Alta) who had passed away the year before. Once we saw the babe, we knew using that name exactly wasn't a good fit. So we switched the first and middle names around (Alta Joyce). Somehow, we both instinctively agreed this new moniker better suited this kid.

When we were expecting the second time, we had several female family names in mind. We decided to wait to pick the final name until we saw the babe. We waited for a full day after she was born to finally name her. Fred knew he wanted to name a future son after his dad and we hated to copy his niece's name as well, but this kid was clearly a Queen Elizabeth in the making. Fortunately, her cousin goes by Beth these days, and there's no way our middle child will ever be a "Beth". Her teachers call her "Liz" once in awhile, but most people still call her "Elizabeth" and bow down slightly in her presence.

During the one-day delay before we named our second kid, one person suggested that since our first daughter is named "Alta" we should call her "Snowbird". (If you're a skier, you'll get the reference.) Sometimes we call the girls "Alpha" and "elizaBeta". Fortunately for us nerdy parents, the kids think those are somewhat cool nicknames and don't ostracize us for sharing them with others.

Take that, Jefe/Teen #2/Trash Boy/Dumpster Diva!