That's "Ma," not "Mc."

If I'm being totally honest, choosing a name for our baby was not really that difficult of a task.  Always the one to prepare as far ahead as possible, I began a list of boy and girl names that I liked fairly shortly after we were married.  I wanted to make sure that any name I saw or heard that I liked would not be forgotten by the time our little bun was in the oven.  Notice I said that the list was of names *I* liked.  I'm not sure Chad was even aware the list existed for quite some time.


By the time we discovered we were expecting - on Cinco de Mayo 2010! - the list had grown to include at least 12 names for each gender, and Chad had weighed in on some of his favorites.  For a girl, our top choices were names like Cassidy, Harper, Analeigh and Madison.  For a boy, Cooper, Logan, Keegan and Finn topped the list.  (BEFORE GLEE, people!  I promise!) 


Once we had the sonogram to confirm the baby's sex - (we won't discuss the expletive that popped out of Chad's mouth at the words, "It's a baby girl!") - then we really got down to the nitty gritty.  I put a baby name app on my iTouch so that I could look for ideas that way.  Initially, I thought the app was pretty much a bust.  I mean, how many ways can you spell the name Jennifer?  Too many, apparently.  But as I scrolled through, I ran across the name Makenna.  I said it in my head a few times - Makenna Morrissey, Makenna Morrissey.  It just had such a great ring to it!  So I immediately texted Chad to ask what he thought.  He wasn't sold on it right away, so I thought I would let it grow on him a bit.


One Sunday, as we were on our way home from our lunch at Panera after church, we started to discuss the baby's name in earnest.  Chad mentioned to me that he thought he was really starting to like Makenna, and we repeated it a few times and were really sold.  Then it came time for a middle name.  Since Makenna Morrissey is already a bit of a mouthful, we decided that a short, one-syllable middle name would be best.  We went through several options - Claire, Grace, Rose, and then Paige.  I tried in vain to convince Chad that Rose was NOT old-fashioned, nor was it the same as the name Rosa, which only makes me crave Taco Tuesdays.  Paige was it - although we DID have a brief moment the weekend before Makenna was born where Rose ALMOST won out, thanks to a little movie called "Titanic" and mommy's crazy hormones. 


We looked at both spellings of the name - Makenna and McKenna - and frankly just liked the first version better.  

It looked prettier and seemed easier.  Oh, how wrong we were.  I certainly anticipated having to spell her name for people.  What I DIDN'T anticipate was how hard the "Ma" spelling would be for some people to grasp.  


"How do you spell that?"


"M-A-K-E-N-N-A."


"M...what?"


"M-A-K-E-N-N-A."


**blank stare**


**sigh**


I honestly even think the two are PRONOUNCED differently.  "Muh-kenna" as opposed to "Mick-kenna."  But alas, that is no help at all.  Don't get me wrong - I still LOVE her name.  I think it's beautiful, and I think it fits her absolutely perfectly.  I just hope that she learns to spell VERY early on, because she'll be doing it for the rest of her life...


"M...I'm sorry, what?"  


**sigh**