The Name Game

When embarking on the journey into parenthood, but Darling Husband and I new before we even started trying, what the name of our first born son (if we were ever blessed with a boy) would be. For many couples, agreeing on a name is difficult and sometimes takes the entire pregnancy (and then some). For us, the difficulty was coming up with a girls name.

Our potential sons name was easy and took all of five minutes to come up with, because we agreed to use family names. By my 8th week of pregnancy, we had already decided on our future daughter's name. Many people thought we'd change our minds, many disliked the name we chose. We didn't care, we loved it and I only had one or two hormonal moments where I thought of changing it (but DH intervened and said NO! For which I'm glad he did, I love our daughter's name).

Now, for some reason in Today's society, giving your children Unique or unusual names seems to be the "in thing". I must say that all of my friends are pretty level-headed and have given their children names that are delightful, inventive, classic and one or two are even rather common. But they are certainly not names to be ashamed of. I've recently, however, encountered one particular child who's name sends shivers down my spine and makes me question her parents motives.

The child's name, and no, I'm not kidding, is Your Majesty. Yes, that is her actual name. And not to sound racist, but I'm sure most of you can figure out the ethnicity of said child.

The problem I find with this name is as follows: First off, it's degrading to the rest of the population. Who is going to want to hire a woman who's boss is going to have to address her as "Your Majesty"? or marry a woman they must call "Your Majesty"? When she has no royal titles at all? I personally refuse to speak the child's name.

Secondly, other children already make fun of her. My own child has taken issue with her classmate's name, saying "But Mommy, she's not a Princess. Only Princes, Princesses, Kings and Queens are called 'Your Majesty'!" As you can see, this has created confusion for my own child, who is usually quite tolerant of other people's differences.

Thirdly, did the parents even truly give much thought in naming their child? Did they not see or foretell that issues that giving their child such a name could possible create?

I'm all for naming your children uniquely, attempting to make them stand out a bit. I get it, really I do. And naming your children is a privilege that every parent gets and it's not necessarily an easy task. But do you really have to give them names that are actually going to make their lives difficult? For goodness sake people! Think about it!