In A Name – Thursday April 12th

I could never tell if Tom was serious when we would have baby-name brainstorming sessions.  For a couple of weeks, he fixated on naming the baby the same name of past and present pets.  ”Not after them, just using the same name.”  I had to treat these suggestions seriously just in case.  ”I think Casey would be a good name for a baby”.  Casey is the name of the labrador I had growing up.  She was a really special dog, and certainly if I were going to be named after a dog, Casey would be the dog I’d want to be named after.

Still, it didn’t strike that naming chord you wait for as a parent.

“You know what is a really cute name?” Tom asked later.  ”Ramona.  I love that name!”

Ramona is the name of our current dog, a sweet orange mutt we adopted from Anti-Cruelty.  She is named after Ramona Quimby, a character from a series of children’s books I loved.  I didn’t know if Tom was inspired to suggest our dog’s name, or if he also wanted to name our daughter after the incorrigible Ramona Quimby.

I had to gently threaten that he might soon be kicked off the baby-naming committee.  I think the threat came at just the right time, because the next name he suggested was Hazel.

I put my hands on my belly and said “Hazel. That’s it.  That’s her name.”  We picked two others to have in our back pocket, because I was afraid she’d come out looking nothing like a Hazel and we’d be stuck naming her Ramona because we couldn’t think of anything else.

Hazel was Hazel and is more Hazel every day. Except when I’m really tired.  Then Hazel, while still retaining all of her Hazelness, gets called Ramona.  And Ramona, standing at the window and barking at the Fed Ex guy, gets called Hazel.