Gingerbread Woman

bungs down a quick gauntlet....

I asked Freddie's father a while ago to think of a middle name. I explained that I thought it would be a nice thing to be able to tell Fred in later years that his middle name came from his Dad. Frazer never got back.

As many of you know, I'm personally quite attached to Byron. I like the floaty shirt sleeve connotations, despite the fact I seem to be in a minority of one on that. I like the thought of adopting the name of a man I admire, whose work ranks amongst the classics of English literature and gets the romantic tag attached to boot. The fact that Byron Bay also happens to be my favourite place on the planet, a spiritual utopia built on an Aborigional healing site, with an ocean to send the camera crazy and is home to dolphins, whales and some of my favourite memories, all adds to the allure.

However, it's fair to say that the almost universal disapproval has got me doubting, it's also fair to say that I thought it worked better as a first name followed by Freddie, before Dad won the 'name him after grandad' lobby, Freddie Byron doesn't, I aquiest, sound quite right.

So I thought I'd throw it open. You know the routine by now, suggestions any which way you want to get them to me, and if anyone can equal Byron (even if equal is a subjective term in this context) I'll post options here and throw it open to a vote. Contributions optional, how you got there ditto, although the 'Byron is pants' brigade (you know who you are) will need to keep stumn from here on in if you don't offer alternatives.

Oh, and if you're thinking it's a flippant way to treat something that accompanies one for life, fear not. I'm big into the significance of naming, not for nothing did I get obsessed by the importance of it in (predominantly black) women's writing. I reckon that a bit of democracy, albeit with a mother's veto, is a way to show how much value I place both on naming my son and having you lot involved in every step of Freddie's journey.

popped xxx

posted by The Gypsy @ 12:46 am