Kabinga
I took pains to give my kids names that are short and easy to spell and pronounce. Unfortunately for them, I also haven't used those names since they popped on out.
Even the dog, Donna, goes by Donnabanonna.
Plagued as they are with unwieldy nicknames of murky origin, I shouldn't be shocked when they turn a deaf ear to my requests.
My youngest currently answers to Kabinga. Kabinga is actually the sound effect that goes along with a little game we play. I sit on the couch, she sits on my shins, tiny-hiney resting on the tops of my feet. I count down...3...2...1...KABINGA, at which point I launch her into the air, and hopefully bring her down on my lap. There have been a few incidents with heads colliding, and more than a few suspected spleen ruptures.
Normal parents play horsey. We're not normal.
Anyway, she answers to Kabinga. Which is really fun to say in a grocery store. "Sit down, Kabinga! Don't suck on the handle, Kabinga." People give me 'the look' - the one that says "you call her what?"
Of course, my oldest still answers to bonga-boong and my son went by bood, short for buddah. Actually, my youngest went by bood as well, but it was short for boudicea, because I had watched some documentary and it stuck in my head.
With so many of the bloggers our there pregnant, I have to smile thinking about the painstaking naming process. The books, the lists, the test-hollering off the front porch...sigh. I was blessed to have my mother and MIL to help me rule out names. Anything they liked, I didn't. Anything I came up with, my mom immediately came up with 30 variations that had me cringing.
"Mom, we're thinking about Amelia."
"Oooh! We can call her Millie! Or Amy! Or Lillie! Or..."
"Or, we were thinking about Danielle."
"Ooh! Dani! Ellie!"
This is one of the prime reasons that we chose simple names that had few nicknames. If you *knew* the names we chose you would laugh and laugh. All the objections I put up to "ee" sounding names, and I picked one for each daughter. Hah. It's my mother's subversive programming.
Anyway, my (unsolicited) advice to parents in the throws of baby-naming: You want to know every possible permutation of a name? Ask my mom. Otherwise, don't tell anyone your choices until the baby is named and it's too late. Bwahahahaha.
Besides, it won't matter, because your kid is going to end up answering to Punkinhead or Meatball, or yes, even Kabinga.
Comments
Read your post and all I could think of was Steve Martin. Remember "The Jerk" where the dog's name is Shithead? Or how about in "Parenthood," where Tom Hulce names his son "Cool."
Posted by: MetroDad | March 3, 2005 12:25 PM
All right, I give, what are the names???
Posted by: Lindsey | March 3, 2005 12:35 PM
We call our daughter Fifi.
No, she's not a poodle. It just happened.
Posted by: ben | March 3, 2005 12:47 PM
Wow, now I need to know their names, damnit!
Posted by: JuJuBee | March 3, 2005 12:52 PM
My kids go universially by George, Boobalee, Bug, Monkey and Shmoopsy and occasionally G.G if they are particularly grumpy....as well as the dogs.
With that said, I've always wanted to name my dog Asker. Just because of the obvious question - "What's her name?".
Posted by: Lee | March 3, 2005 1:10 PM
We spent many, many hours picking out names. (Aidan Elizabeth Dagmar for my daughter, Tannen Andreas Gabriel for my son) Hubby, it turns out, is big into names. Both kids have an "heirloom" name in there somewhere, and he refused all "normal" names. In the end I just let him name them whatever I could stand. And what do I call them? Lovebug and Boo. Sometimes, Fruitloop or Chicken get thrown in there, too.
Posted by: Tammy | March 3, 2005 2:46 PM
Logan? Answered to Stinkerdoodle.
And yes, I do shorten the other two to "Daffy" and "Dilly." See you in hell.
Posted by: Mindy | March 3, 2005 3:10 PM
I actually call my kids by their names occasionally. Usually I call them by variations of their names. But sometimes just random names for them pop out of my mouth. "Let's go change your diaper Poopy Joe." (My son's name is Alexander.) When this happens, they always seem to know I'm talking to them. :)
Posted by: Christine | March 3, 2005 4:11 PM
I usally call mine Pumpkin, but lilbear when he was a toddler.
I'm dying to know your children's names.
Posted by: Michele | March 3, 2005 5:34 PM
people in our playgroup seriously think my kid's name is "Scooby" and we go to an art class where i only call him "Dude"
his real name is Cameron in case you were wondering... now you have to share your real names!
Posted by: monique | March 3, 2005 6:45 PM
I tend to change the nickname on a regular basis. My girly currently goes by "Punkin Butt"... shortened to "Punk" at times. Whatever, as long as they answer, right?
Posted by: Elaine | March 3, 2005 8:33 PM
I have nicknames for our 3 children. Zach is SweetPea. At 10 he gets quite embarrassed if I call him that in front of anyone. Dahlia (7)is my monkey. But she likes to change her name quite often. She's baby Jessica, baby Charlotte, baby Olivia. Notice a pattern there? Noah (4) is simply my lovebug. I just love to squish him. He's so huggable and kissable.
Posted by: MorahMommy | March 3, 2005 9:14 PM
Oh you are so a woman after my own heart. We are very much the same way with names.
Posted by: chasmyn | March 3, 2005 10:48 PM
I don't believe for ONE SECOND that in California people think Kabinga is odd. Liar. ;)
Posted by: Mir | March 4, 2005 9:28 AM
My kids names are Austen, Tanner, Dakota, & Brianna...Austen we call "Austina" when we want to aggrevate him, Tanner we call "Tan the man", Dakota we call "Coty" and Brianna is called "Bri-Bri" or "Bri"
Of course there are times when I call them punkin or sweety, but for the most part they are called their own names.
Posted by: Cindy | March 4, 2005 9:45 AM
Good advice ;-) Heh - this made me laugh. I have a whole entry on our blog devoted to figuring out a name for our baby.
My husband is taking the very sane approach of "let's wait until we know if it's a boy or a girl" which will of course narrow the playing field of names by 50%, making it much easier. I don't think there's much fun in that. I have 5 more months to go - I need to amuse myself somehow!
BTW - what does your mom think of "Madeleine"? :-) That's the one sticking in my brain these days if it's a girl.
Posted by: heather | March 4, 2005 12:24 PM
oooohhh my gawd! I died reading this. I'm new to blogging and you have definitely got me hooked! I was very adament about not nick-naming my kids...James and Jacob...and they are just that. However, more often than not we end up with, Boo, Boooda Belly, Bug, Monster, Monkey Butt and my fav...GiggleTush!
Posted by: J&J's Mom | March 5, 2005 4:19 PM
"Kabinga" is now one of my favorite words. Love. It.
Posted by: buffi | March 6, 2005 10:40 PM