The Name Game

Things are looking up around here. I have the ability to flush the toilet and start my car. I now sleep with my keys under my pillow and know where my water line is located. See? I have learned something these past few days. Tomorrow night I pick up my pooch. And I have to tell you, the puppy is coming at just the right time. He's gonna take some of the heat off my dear hubs.

But naming this pooch has been more difficult than naming any of my three kids. With my daughter, I knew I wanted something unique. Something nobody would have. So I gave her a beautiful moniker. And now that she is school aged I have discovered I wasn't nearly as clever as I thought. There are four of her name in her grade alone. I do believe there are over a dozen with the same name in the school. With only 200 kids in this school. Yes, I am so clever...

I learned with my son. I gave him a name no one had. Except for a character on a now defunct police show. Played by a handsome blonde man. I would tell you but then I'd have to kill you. For this handsome blonde man is really famous and the show was named after his character. But his name has served my son well. There are no duplicates and eight years later no one asks me if I named him after that damn show. Which, by the way, I didn't. I found it in a name book. No, no, I'm not defensive about this...

My third child, my angel boy, we decided to name after our grandparents. Poor thing. We stuck him with a Norwegian and a Swedish name, both of which were unusual and hard to pronounce. No one could say, spell or understand his name. But it was unique. I'm sure if we lived in Norway however, he would have fit right in. If we had known what was the matter with our son we probably would have just named him Jason or Tom. Something easy. But, like the boy named Sue, if it didn't kill him, it would make him strong, right??

But my dog, my dog is a different story. The pressure is on for me to give this dog an appropriate yet unique name. Thank you for all your help, dear internet. I narrowed the list down to five: Finnigan (too many syllables), Hoss (my hub's favorite), Simon (the front-runner), Cletus (my favorite but apparently sounds too much like clitoris. Dirty minded people.) and Otis (the kids loved it.)

Picture me standing outside in my yard yelling out these names. Calling my imaginary dog. Good thing I live out in the sticks. And in the end, none of the five on the short list made the cut. I went a different route.

I went the way of Watergate.

I'll introduce you to my pup Saturday morning. After the hubs and kids meet little Nixon.