I remember the day we "named" Preston. I was 23 weeks pregnant and had just found out that we were having a boy. We were sitting in the Dr office and just saying every name we could think of. We first said Payton, but I liked that more for a girls name and then Preston came out. We loved it. We told everyone the name and had everyone refer to him by the name to make sure that we liked hearing it. When Preston was born it fit his cute little face perfectly.
Now to back the story up. One of the criterea for me/us in picking a name is that either the name could NOT be shortened or I had to like the short version as much as the full name. For example I like Olivia, and i like liv or livi just as much. I didn't like names like Sammuel because I didn't like Sam (no offense to the sams out there). With Preston there seemed to be no way to shorten it. I mean who would call a kid Pres...right?
Well we had some Vietnamse friends over and as I was getting Preston ready to head up for bed. I said, "Preston, you need to pick up your toys. okay bud?" Well our Vietnamese friends thought I said bum and now they refer to Preston as bum. They think it is polite and a good way to show closeness in friendship to refer to Preston by his family nick name (which he doesn't have). I don't know how to tell them that I would prefer they call him Preston and that BUM is NOT his nickname. Tim laughs because he thinks it's funny. I have to admit I giggle when I think of them saying it, but his NAME IS PRESTON NOT BUM!
What does Preston think of being called "Bum"?
ReplyDeleteI giggled as I read your post. My parents didn't want their children to have nicknames and they named me Jessica (shortened to Jess all the time) and my brother Jonathon (practically goes by Jon). at least you gave Preston a name that can't be shortened easily!
ReplyDeleteLOL...you should have at least said "it's Bud, not Bum!" Haha...a good story for him though.
ReplyDeleteThis was hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you, Jamie! Many ppl seem not to care, but me,too, I don't like it when ppl abbreviate my children's names. 'Nat' for Nathalie :( for example. And how about /raaf/ for Ralph? :( Okay,that's the Thai way of saying it, but although it 'doesn't fit with their spelling' can't they just make an effort to pronounce it WITH the 'l'? We 'farangs' make the effort of uttering the 'ng' at the beginning of words, don't we?
And Thai ppl keep wanting to give me a Thai name! Why??? What's wrong with the one I have???
Some ppl started calling my husband using the nickname I used. I quickly made sure that it was only for ME to use that name ;)
Hugs!
When they call him bum again you should say, "do you mean bud? Sometimes we call Preston bud, but that's not his nickname" and explain to them what bud means. It's better to explain to them as if you were just trying to help than by saying you don't like when they call him bum, I think :)
ReplyDeletegreat thoughts guys...I'll let you know how the conversation goes after Chinese New Year
ReplyDelete