So if you know Jeff and I you may know that one thing we have NEVER been able to agree on is baby names. I had hoped that by the time i got pregnant we certainly would have been able to agree on at least a few names....but no after 2.5 years of being married there is still not much we agree on in that department. I think the major reason for this is because Jeff had planned years before he even met me on a list of "royal" boys names (ya he still thinks he is going to have 10 boys) and anything but whats on that list is dumb. Too bad he never ran it by me before we got married because i hate every one of them. We most definitely will be finding out the gender of our baby because we will need as many weeks as possible to agree on something...and im seriously starting to worry that still may not be enough time.
Luckily for us some people in our ward have sincerely offered to "help" us choose a name for our baby. Its been pretty awkward trying to politely turn down their suggestions because they can't comprehend why i dont like their names. How do i explain to them that if jeff and i can barely agree on american names....there is no way we will ever agree on african ones. Let me give you a taste of some of the suggestions we have heard and also some of the local names we've heard while being over here....Im pretty sure you will agree with me when i say my children will NEVER have african names....
- Some people name their baby after the day of the week they were born on. Names like Sunday, Monday, Friday and Saturday are very common.
- Just recently we meet a man at church named Daddy....enough said. Also here's a pic of a guy that does odd jobs for us in Lagos named Papa. 
- Gospel related names are extremely common. We've met....Faith, Hope, Charity, Godspower, Godswill, Blessing, Gift, Grace, Innocent, Patience or others like Smart, Bright, ect...
- Here are two brothers that own a little shop at our lagos yard. Langa Langa (my all time personal fav) and his little brother Ishmylu (ish-smile-lu).
- Some random others we work with....Chukwuemeka, Chibiuke, Ime (ee-may), Udeme Akpan, Chinedu, Jecinta, Olayunmi, Kwasi, kayode, omotunde, yacoubou, Effiong
Are you starting to catch my drift....awesome names if you want your kid to get strange looks the rest of his life. Here are just a few other different customs when it comes to names here.
- You never know which a persons 1st, middle or last name is. They go by all of them or one of them or part of one. It gets confusing fast!
- Sometimes people change their names to whatever their profession is. For example a person becomes an engineer...you now refer to him as Engineer. If your a chief of a tribe, your name is now Chief. If you work in government or the ministries you could be named Honorable or possible Double Honorable (he served 2 times). You will laugh but we seriously met a guy who told us his name was Your Majesty.....
- Normally it is customary for the husband to choose the name of their child - Jeff of course loved that idea and has been trying to convince me it is his duty as a man, but when i think of a future son named Fredrick or Edward i remember why i will never agree to it - Anyways, sometimes the husbands love to push their "naming authority" to the max. For example they choose a name but will not announce it(not even to their wife) until the day of the baby blessing. And over here most mothers will "rest" after birth anywhere to 2-4 months before they or their babies leave the house. So the poor little thing is nameless to everyone but the father for sometimes months. Thank goodness that is not customary for us!!
When i first moved to africa i seriously could not remember ANYONES name and maybe now you can see why. They where just soo completely foreign to me and i could barely pronounce them let alone remember them. I stopped feeling bad when people continued to call me Mrs. Jeff for the first 6 months. I guess kelsey is just as foreign to them too? Anyways please if you have any ideas on how i can explain to people here that the name Langa Langa will not fly in america it would be very much appreciated!! And please pray that in the next few months Jeff and i will finally be able to agree on at least ONE name!!!
February
1 month ago
8 comments:
Oh my goodness....baby names were a constant source of conversation and debate at our house too! Glad those days are past and now it is fun to watch and giggle at the younger generations! Thank you so much for the tablecloth..I got it last week and it has been on the table ever since. Perhaps I need to figure out the washing instructions, EH?? I'm afraid that it might fade. What do you think?
Love: Aunt Jolene
you can tell jeff that edward is out because of twilight. but you could go with frederick after grandpa romeril! little freddy would be so cute!
What I've found is that it doesn't matter how much time you have to think of names, it doesn't help. Even if you both like a name it is hard to imagine your child being stuck with whatever you choose for them. We've never had a name picked out before the delivery and I would never have agreed to naming my kid George, but once I saw him that's what stuck, don't ask me why. It's seriously so fun not knowing what you are having during the delivery. Anyways, I have to agree with Brette about Edward. I liked that name until Twilight became so popular, now it would feel like you're naming your kid after a vampire, although I know Jeff probably thinks he'd be naming him after Edward the Longshanks from Braveheart.
I always thought I should get to pick the name since I went through all the pain. That didn't work out. My two biggest things were I didn't want my kid spelling their name for people the rest of thier lives and I wanted them to learn to spell it easy when they were young. Good luck!! I have always said their are lots of great names but how to choose just one. Also my brother-in-laws's dad changed his name when he blessed him anyways. His mom was a little surprised.
i'm literally going to name my first born son langa langa.
yours truly,
melissa
we have a hard time agreeing on names too...in fact, we are constantly talking about it and people always think we are expecting, nope, just trying to agree,,,ahead of time, so we dont have to fight during the time, so we have a boy and a girl name pretty much picked out for the next child....and whenever we do have another child, that will instantly become him/her name...
as for explaining to the people that you do not like that name....I have not a clue...sorry!
I will pray for your babes name/crazy father. However I think Gibb is a fine name. One name like...Cher, Bradgelina, Yup just Gibb. Truly once you see little Langa Langa you may just know good luck. Auntie Patty
I totally burst out laughing at "Your Majesty" and had to tell my mom about it. You lead a crazy life Mrs. Gibb!
Hakon and I have different styles with names too. We finally just had to decide which names we could both live with even if we didn't both love them. It turned out that we are really happy with both of the names we've chosen. Most importantly we wanted them to have a name that would be easy to spell and say since they will have to be explaining their last name over and over throughout their lives. Good luck!
p.s. You should move here, please.
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