Monday, June 04, 2007

miles primo


Happy birthday to Miles,
who turns 9 today.
He neither smokes nor
plays guitar, and I hope
he'll skip the former.

Before he was born I considered naming him Jack, but Carlo didn't like Jack and it turned out that half the boys born in 1998 were named Jack. I also liked Dexter, but the Italian in-laws said that sounded like a robot name. I liked Quinn, too, but the Italian in-laws could only pronounce "queen," so that was out. Fletcher was briefly considered, but my brother Thatcher said he'd never survive the playground (I still like Fletcher). Morgan was a last-minute contender, but it disturbed my father as a preppy name for a beauty-pageant-type girl. I don't live in the US so some of this cultural nuance was lost on me. My father even called the night before Miles was born to "discuss" it, which I found rather touching, to be honest, that he cared that much. But it didn't matter because we'd already decided on Miles, middle name Primo after his paternal grandfather. Of course Miles would way rather be named Jack. What can I reply except "if only my parents had named me Maybelline!" Whatever, he is such a crazy wonderful boy that I always say I wish he'd been twins.

5 comments:

Liz said...

Enjoyed the story, Sarah.

Happy birthday to Miles - what a photo and what a character, I'd say. : )

michi said...

happy birthday, miles!

i like quinn, but yes, italians do have problems with the short "i" sound. an acquaintance of mine recently read one of his poems about trying to teach a latin american girl to say "cheap" (chip -- cheeep -- chip -- no no: cheeep -- chip ... etc). :)

dexter reminds me of a middle-aged bachelor in late-50s/early-60s movies. and fletcher is very mutiny on the bounty. ;)

anyway, love the photo. :)

SarahJane said...

I think the lesson in all this, as any expecting parent can attest, is don't tell anyone what you're thinking of naming your baby.
smile

Bruno Buxton said...

That's right--don't tell anyone what you're going to name your child-to-be because:

1. Your parents will tell you a million reasons NOT to name the child what you've picked out

2. Someone in your family will steal the name.

When Max was in utero, we told everyone we were naming him Monty Flaubert. We kept up the ruse for the entire nine months. When he was born, everyone was delighted with Maxwell.

Ash

SarahJane said...

Ha! That's right. I've heard of relatives and friends "stealing" the name of the unborn! Fiendish.

Actually my sister-in-law was in love with the name Lily, and my other sister-in-law named her baby Lily. And still my other sister-in-law said if she had a girl she would also name her Lily. Luckily she had a boy. But for a couple years there (1998-2000), Lily was a very popular name. I'm sure everyone has stolen the name from my sisters-in-law. smile

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