The Bummage Chronicles, part 4

June 27, Friday: Kat, an old friend of mine from high school, is having a baby next month (a boy!) and so she asked me earlier for name suggestions. Her mom likes the sound of Jakob and she’s been asking around for another name to go with that. So far, Kat has come up with these: Amir Jakob, Jakob Matthew, Antoine Jakob, Timothy Jakob, Ferrari Jakob (note: cars are for driving, not for names.), Noel Jakob, Pablo Jakobo, Jakob Vincent, Samuel Jakob, and Lee Jakob.

Now don’t laugh. I have heard of worse. Like Boogles and Flossy. Other BAAAAD examples include Brooke Shields Dimautangan and Tom Cruise dela Cruz. See? Giving names to future humans is very risky business.

When I asked Ate Marcia, my brother’s 6month pregnant wife-to-be, she said that my future nephew’s name would be Maron Chris Angelo (Maron from their names, Chris for “gift of God” and Ate Marcia’s big sister, and Angelo from my father’s name). “That’s way too long,” Kat argued. “The kid would have a hard time writing his name – on surprise test papers.” I knew she was speaking from personal experience but I countered, “I’d teach him to write only his surname on the paper. I’m sure Siochi’s not easy to confuse with other names.”

Anyway, I’m straying from the subject.

As you can probably tell, the names mentioned above just didn’t make the cut. Come on, I won’t be the godmother of anybody about to be christened Pablo Jakobo. I just might snatch the baby away and hide him until his mother thinks up of a better name.

So what did I suggest? I told my sister-in-law-to-be, er… “suggested” that they can shorten the name to Maron Angelo. I thought that Chris might be a bit redundant beside Angelo. As for the other parent to be, I suggested Dylan. Don’t you think that sounds nice? Jakob Dylan. Hmmm…

All this talk about names reminded me on how I got mine. According to my parents, my name was supposed to be Rachel. (Yes, I know. It doesn’t suit my rep.) Fast forward to October 31, 1983, my tita “suggested” that I be called Rosario since it was the end of the month of the Rosary, plus it would be a namesake for both my grandmothers (Rosalinda and Rosa) and the tita (also Rosa) in question.

The rest is history. Since then I have been called a hundred names:

·          Rosario – when my dad’s angry (my mom doesn’t say my name, she has “the Look”), Bunso on normal days

• Rio – nickname
• Chochi/Choch – ePerformax and QJ friends, it all started with a guy named Molave Timonera (he addressed gifts to me as to Chochi Siochi, go figure)
• Siochi – guy friends
• Wio/Io – favorite cousin
• Boss – it was way back in elementary, don’t ask or I shall wring your neck
• Chichan/Riochan/Ichan – my bestfriend Ayee
• Rio-san/Rio-chan/Chosa-san – Lei, and I call her Chibi-chan
• And a dozen others I can’t remember right now, or chose to forget.