The Great Debate.

As some of you might remember, we've had baby names picked out for awhile now. If our little gummy bear is a girl, her name will be Dandelion Lenore Gray. And if he's a he, his name will be Rainier DeForrest Gray. Now most people, or at least 80% of people I ask, think that Rainier is a good name but they aren't so sure about Dandelion. The biggest reason I've been given is, "She'll get made fun of so much when she's in Elementary School". I always argue, saying people name their kids the craziest things nowadays, nobody will even think it's weird by the time she's in Kindergarten. Well, today I got proof- and some pretty amazing insight considering nobody has thought twice about our boy name up to this point.



Well, today was my last day in the 5th grade class where I've been long-term subbing. I decided to tell them I am pregnant, because I'll be student teaching at the same school next year, so they will obviously be wondering where that huge tummy came from. They were so stinking excited, it was adorable. Then they asked what the names where that I had picked out. I figured this was an excellent time to get some good feedback from the true experts. I told them our girl name, and they thought it was perfect. They said they wouldn't make fun of a girl named Dandelion, and they loved the nickname Andi. One girl even said that it was a "perfect" name for my daughter because of "the way I am and how cool I am". Yeah, pretty amazing.

Then I told them the boy name, without thinking twice. A few asked, in shock, what I had said. I repeated the name and immediately at least six different kids started singing, "Rudolph the red nose Reindeer". One of the boys said, "we would definitely make fun of that kid, we'd call him Rudolph". And another said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Gray, but you should probably come up with a different boy name." I about died laughing, but Jordan didn't when I called him to tell him- he picked out the name.

But now we know, Dandelion is a perfectly acceptable name in a 10 year old world. But Rainier, on the hand, is way too close to Reindeer and just flat out sounds funny.

"We'd definitely make fun of that kid!"