What's In a Name?

[daycarediva]

How about "Median _______" ::::

:: I laughed wayyyy too hard at this! ::


I am not worried about the big/little. Big is 4 years older, is a giant tall. Little is tall for his age, but just shorter than 'big' kid. Little's Dad has the same name, so at home he is already 'little ____' and his Dad is big _____.

Neither child has a nickname, and for us/me big/little is working just fine. My concern is adding a 3rd kiddo (with same last initial as 'big ____', too). I obviously don't want to turn down a good fit family over a NAME but jeepers creepers this is weird!

Also, the name isn't super common. I have never met another one before.

[daycarediva]

As far as your issue Daycarediva, what I would do is just say their names and and then if one of them doesn't know you are talking to them, you can just say Billy who is wearing the red shirt. I'd embed some sort of "game" into it.

GREAT IDEA!

[nannyde]

I just give them a number behind their name. Sam1. Sam2

[Unregistered]

How about using their first and middle names. That is what some of the teachers at my sons school does if there are more then one child in the same classroom.

Example:

Jeffrey Scott

Jeffrey Michael

[sally]

I had a hard time getting the right names out last winter. I had 3 littles with C names and then I had 2 dcgs with names that rhymed then I added a drop in dcg who's name also rhymed with the other 2 girls. I ended up using nicknames I came up with while they were here.

[mamac]

I agree with this.

I had two boys with the same name a few years ago and the older one was really large and IMO, severely overweight for his age. One of my other DCK's started referring to the two boys a "big S" and "little S" .

I think it really had a negative affect on the older one as he didn't view the moniker as something to differentiate the two from each other but more as a name we were calling him to tease or offend him. His mom wasn't too thrilled to find out either.

At the same time, I also had two moms with the same name and they both had sons that had the same name....

Currently, I have 4 moms (yes, 4 of them) as well as myself with some variation of the same name..... it is completely confusing sometimes...

As far as your issue Daycarediva, what I would do is just say their names and and then if one of them doesn't know you are talking to them, you can just say Billy who is wearing the red shirt. I'd embed some sort of "game" into it.

While I agree that I wouldn't use Big and Little in that situation I would still do it with children of average size. I would obviously take each situation as it comes and use common sense if one child was obviously much "bigger" than the other.

I read an article a while ago called "The Worst Things You Can Say to a Woman Who Just Had a Baby"(http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/wor...115600786.html). One of the things listed by a mom who said one of her pet peeves was when people said her child was little or small. She saw that as an insult because her child was a preemie, so she sees people calling him small as a reflection on him being unhealthy. Also parents of the child who is described as "big" my think you are poking fun at his weight or pointing him out as being tall for his age. I knew one girl who hated being called big or tall (she was 9 and taller than me), she said being tall made her feel fat because "tall" means "big" and so does "fat". Also there was one thing on here about the providers being annoyed by the kids always saying "I'm big" or "my mom says I am big" and even having arguments about it. We also do live in a society where "bigger is better" (especially for kids), so after a while the 'little' kid might feel inferior because he is not 'big'.

Plus, as someone who was overweight all my life- yes the term does offend me because people would say that I was big and I knew they meant 'fat' because I wasn't tall, in high school one kid used to sing "twinkle, twinkle, big fat Star" during P.E. So that's why I said personally I wouldn't use that term. I didn't say she wasn't allowed to use it.

Also the terms 'big' and 'little' in a literal sense are not really related to age but size; after all, we don't say that the bigger car is older than the little car (it's also misinforming because people who are older are not always taller than younger people). If your going by age why not Senior and Junior? Or even by numbers of who was there first (Billy 1 [or Billy the 1st], Billy 2 [or Billy the 2nd])? Also what would happen if a new kid with the same name is a taller then the old "Big Bob" but a few months younger?

For the personality thing, only if it's done in a positive way. It's not like you would call one kid "Smart Steve" and the other "Dumb Steve".

While you are correct about the literal usage of the words, don't we all tell our young kids that they are becoming a "Big Boy" of "Big Girl" after certain accomplishments and it's not always related to size? How about when your referring to siblings? Big Brother and Little Brother, etc? I know my younger brother is over a foot taller than I am. He's still my "little" brother and I am his "big" sister.

For the personality thing, only if it's done in a positive way. It's not like you would call one kid "Smart Steve" and the other "Dumb Steve".

Clearly.

[mamac]

I just give them a number behind their name. Sam1. Sam2

This seems to be the simplest answer.

[Blackcat31]

While I agree that I wouldn't use Big and Little in that situation I would still do it with children of average size. I would obviously take each situation as it comes and use common sense if one child was obviously much "bigger" than the other.

My two didn't start out big or little in size. They were pretty equal so the big-little reference wasn't an issue until it was too late and already a habit.

I do agree though that it shouldn't be a huge deal as there are big and little siblings....

kids simply adjust and get used to it if they have a common or trendy name.

[CedarCreek]

I feel like I HAVE to know what this name is now! ::

I would call them by their first and last name or first and last initial.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I feel like I HAVE to know what this name is now! ::

I would call them by their first and last name or first and last initial.

:: Right?

I would also call them by the first name and last initial or their first and middle name.
I'm used to two names. My son goes by a first and middle name.

[daycarediva]

Cohen is the name. ::

[CedarCreek]

Cohen is the name. ::

How in the world did you end up with 3 of those?? It's really cute, though!

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

I was one of 5 Mary's in elementary school. And I couldn't be Mary H. We had a Mary Hi and a Mary Ho... eventually I became Mary Beth.

When my son was little I had 3 Michaels. One being mine. Mine was Boo at that point, one was Mickey and the other Michael. Now 16 years later.. Mine is Michael, Mickey is Mick and Michael is Mike!

[daycarediva]

How in the world did you end up with 3 of those?? It's really cute, though!

That's what I said! cute name!

[MyAngels]

Could you use initials for the third child? There were so many Mikes at one point in my son's grade they used first and middle initials to differentiate. I will say that some didn't work as I well as others - MJ flows much better than MZ for instance