What’s in a Name?

I don’t believe I’ve told this story yet, and since I’m sick to death of my own voice talking about remote learning (it sucks), the few days in school (she loves it), and the general quarantine fatigue, it feels like the right time.

If any of you know me and Eric, you know that we never agreed on baby names. He’d throw out a couple and I’d say they sucked, I’d throw out a couple and he’d tell me I make terrible choices. We settled on Charlotte early on in that pregnancy, which was literally the only name we both liked. When I got pregnant the second time, there was not a single name, male or female, that we both liked. I liked old fashioned names and he liked trendy. We would argue over everything. He said we should just name the baby Charlotte 2.

Before I found out I was pregnant, like a week or two before, I remember talking to Charlotte about throwing out this gross toy bottle when she told me I had to save it for the baby in my belly. Then, when I found out I was pregnant and told her, she said she knew it was a girl. If any of you have seen the video of our gender reveal, you’ll see her screaming “SORRY DAD” because she was so happy to have a little sister on the way. Once we knew it was a girl, we really ramped up the name game and we were at a stalemate. But then my best friend Lisa sent Charlotte a big sister book and a big sister doll to celebrate, and when Charlotte was playing with the doll she looked up at me and said “this baby is Mackenzie, like my baby sister is Mackenzie.” She said it so matter of fact, like she had always known and the decision was made. Mackenzie was never on our radar. We never said it out loud, we never thought it, we literally never considered it. But when Charlotte said it, that was it. She named her sister.

Eric chose her middle name, but we spelled it Mae because Mackenzie’s godmother is LisaRae (the same Lisa who bought the doll that inspired the name to begin with), so it was a nod to her. May is also the month Eric and I met, so Mackenzie’s name is special all around. I also like the way Charlotte Shea and Mackenzie Mae flows, because I’m a sucker for rhyming and alliteration.

And that’s that. The story of Mackenzie Mae, our little chubba love.