tags

Now that he is free his hospital ankle-tags may be removed, though will obviously be kept somewhere nice and safe. It had been at least twenty hours since the right-hand one was reapplied for the fifth or sixth time but the one on the left was the original, hopefully due to the tightness of the original fastening rather than any sort of weird ankle-asymmetry which allows him to wriggle out of one but not the other.

My criteria were:
(1) that it should be something reasonably rare (at least school-year-level unique if not school-level unique, probably only easily possible in a wee school like that to which I went though in which I was still one of two of my name in my class),
(2) that it would not be shared by anyone known either locally or distant, physically or electronically (which unfortunately wiped several off Nicky's half of the male-names half of the side-of-the-fridge name-list),
(3) that it not be too biblical or have any other unpleasant historical associations,
(4) that it not be too weird, obscure but neither also too common or common,
(5) that it be something I'd be prepared to use in day-to-day life and
(6) that it be something which works with my relatively unflowing surname...

(5) is something I feel a lot of people don't consider, either when naming pets or children. If it's not something you'd be happy shouting in a park or out of the back door then it can't be a very nice thing to be called, though similarly with pets "I will kill again" or "I'm coming to get you" would be good names for dogs or cats if you want to keep your neighbours on their toes. Nicky had some criteria too but too many seemed to be of the nature of "not that" when I found a suitably rare or interesting name, not even always something entirely made-up. Whilst we weren't intending to re-use any weird family names I'd have happily accepted her father's Campbell as long as it was joined by the middle names Heinz and Baxter. Similarly a string of androgynous (at least phonetically) names like Francis Leslie Carol Wallace Shirley Thingby has only theoretical entertainment value; likewise any set of initials which spell out unfortunate words or any sort of common acronym.

Finally, (7) was that "the child must look like he suits the given name" which cut out a surprisingly large number of alternative possibilities. It's weird how some names are more suitable than others for beings only a day or so old but some are apparently unsuitable for this particular mix of my eyes, Nicky's nose, my ears and probably Nicky's mouth. We spent a few days testing Edgar before officially applying and announcing it. I never insisted that Nicky took my surname when we married (though she did, though a few bank accounts still have to be told) but the name will live on in Edgar's middle name of Shaw. I technically have a family non-surname name (which I escaped being given and which my parents sometimes express regret at not giving me) but my surname is also a family name and he only really needs the one. Four names is far too many seeing as hopefully the first and the last combined should be reasonably unique, unless he ever goes to America.