Thursday, January 19, 2012

Middle names

What is it about middle names that imply some kind of trouble?  Like if your mom busts out your middle name, you know she means business.  I'm not sure if there's some added level of formality that comes along with that fact that you're about to get your ass handed to you, but middle names are quick to roll off the tongue of a mother (or father).
My middle name is Amber and I really don't recall my mom having to use it too often.  I was a fairly obedient child and usually just cried when I got in trouble, so she wasn't big on Chelsea Amber.  Now my grandma, Mary Lou, calls me Chelsea Amber all the time, but that's another type of situation all together.  I can recall my brother getting the ol' Travis James on many occasions though.  Sometimes I still want to pull out a middle name on my brother, but I'm not sure its as effective at 32 years old.
James' middle name is Adrian, named for my dad, Bruce Adrian (named for his grandpa, Maurice Adrian).
James is named for his dad - Adam James, grandpa - John James, great grandpa - James John (I have a whole series of Polish jokes regarding my husband's family - could they seriously not come up with anything other than James or John?  There's also talk of James' great great grandpa named...  ADAM.  Seriously, people...), the aforementioned uncle - Travis James, and great uncle - Ward James.  Depending who we want to placate that day, James might be named after them (including one of my good friends from high school who we refer to as Big James*).
And now here we are, in full on parenting mode, giving timeouts, having stern talking-tos and what is the first thing out of my mouth?
JAMES ADRIAN!



*Funny side story about Big James and differentiating between the two.  Big James is getting his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Texas, Austin.  Over a year ago, they had a gunman on campus situation and I was quite worried.  I texted and found out that he wasn't yet on campus that day and had stayed home during the lockout.  When I relayed the story to Adam, his response was "Of course James wasn't on campus today, he's only 3 months old."  Sigh.

3 comments:

  1. Don't forget great-grandfather Darrel James and great-great-grandmother Kitsey Belle James.

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    1. More Jameses! How did I not know Darrel's middle name was also James? It never even showed up as a hint on ancestry.com! Now I can add it! And of course the whole James as a sir name. Just don't go thinking I'll name a little girl Kitsey.

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    2. I kinda like Kitsey... much better than Gladys

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