When our lovely daughter Amy was still “the Bump” we became obsessed with names - right down to scouring the credits at the end of every programme and film (“Audrey Thexton - that’s a bit different, would that work? Maybe not…”).
It was such a responsibility to plump for the right one: we couldn’t choose something too cutesy because she might became Prime Minister one day (Angel Thexton, Prime Minister). It couldn’t be anything that would date (think ‘Ethel’, or ‘Mavis’). We weren’t the kind of people to do a Beckham or a Bowie (ie, calling her something utterly mad like ‘Trixie-Biscuit’). It couldn’t start with a “th” or a “ph” because with a surname like Thexton that would make everyone sound like they had a lisp (try saying Thelma Thexton and you’ll see what I mean!).
And then there was the other problem, the one that nobody likes to mention… the really, really popular names. The ones that are so popular that if you shout them out loud in the park the chances are 5 toddlers, a cat and 4 dogs will all look up at you. You know the ones I mean I’m sure… So what if we got a bit ironic and went in the opposite direction, and called her “Scamp”? Or “Patch” (bit too eczema-y?) Or what about “Lassie”?? No, perhaps not.
The problem is, everyone is giving their pets human names - even we’ve named our dog Freddy. And there’s a cute Jack Russell dog right here in Belton called Alan. The other day we walking Freddy when we met Pete, the greyhound. A friend of mine once had a Labrador called Dave…
Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to Freddy we are all completely guilty of giving him human characteristics to match his human name. It isn’t just the Paris Hiltons of this world that are guilty of turning pets into baby substitutes (even when you actually do have a real, human baby!). I guess it’s just the inevitable side effect of the human need to nurture - especially anything that has big innocent eyes!
So how did we end up with the name “Amy”? A nice lady working in Boots struck up a conversation over my bump, and mentioned it was one of her favourites. Amy…. Amy Thexton…. I like it... I like it a lot…. middle name Rose…. and Amy means ‘beloved’ which is lovely… yes, perfect!
So how did you come up with a name for your child? Did you research the meaning of the name? Did you find it all as tricky as we did?! Leave a comment and let me know, I’d love to hear about your experience too!
Sarah x
Our family was just talking about pets with human names the other day. My daughter and I were the most opinionated with me being for it and she against. All the boys in our family were neutral on the subject. (Even though our dog and cat have decidedly human names, Bella and Lacey. Although, we usually address them as Bella and Cat.)
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