Becoming a grandmother is one of life’s greatest gifts. Not only is today’s guest blogger Donna Lavoie basking over having her first grandchild, but she’s also trying to narrow down a perfect name for herself in her new grandma role. Enjoy Donna’s post as her creative quest helps her choose a meaningful name, along with the help of Blog Nation.
Shari
Earlier this year, around Mother’s Day, I wrote a blog on my dilemma over what I wanted to be called as a first-time grandma. You can read it by clicking here.
In that blog, I talked about my son-in-law. Barrett’s suggestions, which he jokingly suggested, I be called D-@%! Obviously, I will NOT be called that. But that is what got me thinking, what do I want to be called?
Let me go back a few steps in the story. My daughter gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Friday, June 13. His name is Lincoln Axl, and he has me wrapped around his finger. I look for any excuse to babysit him.
He is almost five months old… AND I am still not committed to a Grandma name. When I wrote about this earlier this year, I was torn between Gigi and Mimi. And those two are still in the running. I logged onto Reddit to see what other grandmothers were called, and I saw Didi, which I liked too.
At the end of the blog I wrote in May, I had it narrowed down to those three names: Gigi, Mimi, or Didi. I got some suggestions from others. Some I liked, some I didn’t. But nothing stood above Gigi, Mimi or Didi.
That all changed on June 12, the day before Lincoln arrived. My daughter was being induced that day. I got to the hospital after work with dinner for everyone. As I rushed in to see how my daughter was doing, I was met by my daughters telling me they picked out my Grandma name.
Lincoln was nowhere near making his entrance. They spent the day deciding what this little baby boy was going to call me and their father. “Birdie and BoBo” they blurted out. “Birdie and BoBo?” I questioned. “No, no no!” I thought. “Was I that bad of a parent to these girls that they thought my grandchild should call me D-@%! or now Birdie? Well, at least I’m not Bobo, I sighed.
They laughed, “You’re Birdie, Dad is Bobo.” I smiled and as I glanced down, I noticed the cardinal on my jacket, a Ball State University jacket, I had bought when my oldest daughter was a student there. I pointed to the cardinal and wondered if this was fate. Why did I pick this jacket? Why did I wear a jacket? It’s June.
As I waited that night and the next day, I kept thinking, “Birdie?” “Am I a Birdie?” “Have I ever heard of Birdie?” There’s Lady Bird Johnson – but that makes me think OLD!
Ok, so I did a quick Google search and nothing bad or slang comes up about the name. And Lady Bird Johnson does not come up. It was mostly about golf.
Maybe Birdie isn’t that bad? Am I talking myself into Birdie? I have to be honest, I think some of my hesitancy was because I was worried that it meant something else – and not in a good way. My kids like practical jokes. My oldest daughter once used the TV parental controls to lock me out of my favorite TV shows. Is Birdie safe? I should check Reddit too.
After checking Reddit, I did not find any Grandma’s named Birdie. But a lot of families posted they were considering Birdie as the name for a child. Several people also posted Birdie was a nickname for Roberta or Brigid.
It’s growing on me as I write this blog. What do you think? Should I go with Birdie? Leave your comments and suggestions below.
I feel like if you still aren’t sure, maybe it’s not right. Keep in mind, what Lincoln calls you will set a precedent for what future grandchildren will call you.
In our case, my mother fell in love with the name her first grandchild came up with for her. It was unique and sweet. You could wait and see.
I just became a first-time grandma myself and my daughter loved her Nana, so she wanted me to be a “Nana” too. I had picked out Gigi for myself, but Nana it is!!!
This is something I think about all the time and my daughter isn’t even talking about having children yet. I can only imagine what I will be feeling when they do
When my first grands were born (twins) I had assumed I’d be Grandma as mine had been. However my daughter had her own ideas – Nana and 5 more grands ( all now in their 20s) still call me Nana – and call me frequently.. As long as they love me they can all me most anything!
When my first grands were born (twins) I had assumed I’d be Grandma as mine had been. However my daughter had her own ideas – Nana and 5 more grands ( all now in their 20s) still call me Nana – and call me frequently.. As long as they love me they can all me most anything!