What's in a Name?

I took 36 hours for my first Masters program over ten years ago and to this day, I think the only thing I remember is something so simple I learned in my middle school methods course taught by Bruce Hayden. As a side note, Bruce was a middle school teacher at the time and just so happened to be my cooperating teacher when I student taught. He is amazing!

So here's what I learned...On the first day of school, instead of calling role, let the students tell you their first and last name. Simple! Compare this with the traditional method of calling out names in each class and doing your best to pronounce the name that has 16 consonants and 2 vowels. I did my share of this traditional method over the years and didn't think much of the giggles when I totally butchered a name. But I wasn't that kid who had to sit through 8 classes where each teacher tried his/her best to sound it out. If the student gets to tell you his/her name, they will of course pronounce it correctly AND you'll know whether Timothy likes to be called Timothy, Tim, Timmy, or goes by his middle name Bob. ;)

Since we're on the topic of names, I thought this would be the perfect time to share the actual names of the "T's" I've been writing about. I have been married to Troy for 13 years. When I was pregnant with our first baby, we liked the names Tyler (boy) and Kathryn (girl). Tyler was born in 2003. When I was pregnant for the second time, we didn't discuss the whole "T" theme, we just liked the names Trevor (boy) and Kathryn (girl). Trevor was born in 2005. When I was pregnant for the third time, we thought about the whole "T" theme and wondered if we should break the pattern and go with a different letter? We decided to stick with the T's and our name choices were Kathryn (girl) and Trent (boy). Notice I put the girl's name first? We were sure this one was a girl. Well Trent was born in 2007 and kept his name for about 18 hours before we decided to go with Trea. As a side note, Trevor was about 21 months at the time Trea was born and knew all along that our boy name was Trent. A few weeks after we brought Trea home, I overheard him telling someone, "We left Trent at the hospital and brought Trea home instead." ;) Priceless! So we thought we were done with our 3 T's, but having 4 kids was God's plan for us. When I was pregnant for the fourth time, we threw out all sorts of names. Troy's top choices were Thor and Titus. Um...NO! We ended up agreeing on Toby for a boy's name and pretty much gave up on our girl name. ;) Toby was born in 2010. So there you have it... 5 T's (Troy, Tyler, Trevor, Trea, and Toby) and me...Lynn! :)

On another side note, Troy and I got a dog about a month before we got married. His name? Tippy! He was a beautiful lab/vizsla mix and was our first baby. :) He was a great dog and we miss him dearly!