"Raising a kid is part joy and part guerrilla warfare."
~Ed Asner

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

# 1 popular girl's name in 2007?

Doood, I forgot to mention something about Izzie's preschool class.  She has a rather small class, around a dozen I think.  I've always thought of my daughter as being unique.  I mean, we all are.  We each have our own identity, our own personality, our own quirky habits, our own name...Right?  

When I got pregnant, everyone decided to steal the name I had planned for my daughter since I was a little girl.  Isabelle/Isabella rose to the # 1 girl name for 2007.  The nerve of people.  As it happened, I didn't know anyone named Isabelle and none of my friends were having babies yet or planned on naming their babies Isabelle, as far as I knew so I wasn't about to change her name now just because it was becoming a common household name.  I did switch it up a bit and went with Izabelle.  I'm sure she'll thank me later.  I love it when people spell my name wrong or call me 'Annie.'

I still don't know any Isabelle's or Isabella's  and Izzie hasn't met any girls with a variation of her name either...until today.  In her class alone there is an Isabelle, Isabella and then, of course, her.  Three!!!  In a class of about a dozen kids.  And Isabella's last name also starts with a B, and, and she has an allergy to milk.  How freaky is that!  I told her teacher that we call her Izzie and she said, "Oh, that's what we call Isabella."  I'm glad I knew this before I labeled everything.  You know how some people are known by their last name?  For example, in high school some of my friends called me 'Welton'.  It just worked.  'Burl' just doesn't work.  I'm not trying to be a snot here, but I will always love my maiden name and carry a special place for it in my heart.  'Burl' doesn't really roll off the tongue.  It kind of gets stuck halfway and some people say 'Burrow' and even 'Burly'.  Really?  BURLY?  What if people start calling Izzie, 'Burly'?  Once you get stuck with a nickname, it's hard to shake it.  'Burly' is for viking girls named Hilda or Helga.  'Burly' is not for sweet girls named Izabelle, who happen to have a last name that, for some people, is hard to say.  I think it's the R; or the L; or the R and the L together.  When I was younger I couldn't pronounce my R's.  I still have a hard time.  Sometimes I say 'Wabbit' instead of 'Rabbit'.  Sometimes I have to over enunciate my last name.  In fact, now whenever I have to give my last name I say, "Burl. B as in boy. U. R. L."  Otherwise, it gets misspelled and mispronounced 9 out of 10 times. 

But in order to avoid confusion and make things easier for everyone, I did label everything 'Burl'.  Her backpack has her full name on it, but all of her clothes, shoes, and school supplies are labeled with 'Burl'.  I'm not going to stop calling her Izzie and I really hope they don't have to resort to calling them Izzie 1-2-3.   I'm sorry, but please do not refer to my child by number.  I wonder if there will be times where the girls use the fact that all have the same name to their advantage.  If they do, more power to them.

I can't hold my head up so I'm going to put my body to bed.

Sweet Dreams Universe  

2 comments:

  1. As a kid, I was never alone in my name. In fact I went to high school with two other girls who had the same first AND last name as me. Hailey is known at daycare/preschool by her first and last name, because there's more than one with her name. As a result, she refers to herself by her full name quite often.

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  2. Yah, some people suggested that I name Izzie and Noah something different because they were popular names. I was like, well unless I name my child after a fruit or something, every name is going to be popular sooner or later. Besides, I said, these are the names I believe they are supposed to have so deal with it:)

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