Names and other names

When I was pregnant with the Fab Four, one of the burning questions on people's minds was: "What are you going to name them?" And our reply was always the same: "We're not telling anyone until they're born." Although our family and friends may have thought we were playing coy, the truth is that coming up with eight names (four first and four middle) was a daunting task—so overwhelming that even we didn't know for sure what our babies' names were going to be until just a day or two before I delivered!

Two and a half years later, one of those babies (Lucy) has apparently decided that the names we so carefully picked out are lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. To remedy this lack of parental creativity, she has come up with some snazzier pseudonyms for the crew. Allow me to introduce you to:

LULU

When the Fab Four were still babies and it became clear that Lucia would be more petite than her siblings, I would occasionally call her Little Lulu (after one of my favorite cartoons as a kid in Peru). I randomly used her old nickname a while back, and it seems that the "Lulu" part caught her fancy.

The only nickname that Lucy uses more than her own is:

JUDO

A few weeks ago, Ted joked with me that Jude's name in Spanish would be Judo. I didn't even realize that Lucy was listening to our conversation until about a week later, when she pointed at Jude and repeated what Ted had said. She now refers to Jude by his "Spanish" name so often that I've even caught myself calling him that!

Another nickname that is catching on around here is:

BIG GUY

I recently heard Lucy start crying in the playroom and ran in there to find Isaac unintentionally smashing her against the side of the school bus. As I rescued Lucy, I told Isaac that he needs to be more careful because his sister is a little girl and he is a big guy. Little Lulu must have appreciated the imagery, for she soon dubbed Isaac "Big Guy." Even Jude seems to think the name fits: When I told him the other day that he was a big guy, he immediately corrected me, saying, "Isaac big guy!"

Unlike the boys' nicknames, which are relatively new creations, Dahlia's goes back just as far as Lucy's does:

JULIA

When Dahlia was a baby in the throes of acid reflux, I used to soothe her during feedings by singing the Beatles song "Julia," substituting her name for the song's title. Now, every time we listen to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Lucy's song) or "Hey Jude" (Jude's song), the kids also insist on listening to "Julia," which they call "Dahlia's song." Lucy isn't fooled by my lyrical switcheroo, though. She knows the song's real name, and to her, Dahlia is Julia.

I'm sure these nicknames are the first in a long line of aliases that the Fab Four will come up with for themselves—but what they don't know yet is that Ted and I already employ our own code names for them. I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that we long ago assigned each a number according to birth order?