Getting Real with Brittany Tiedemann
I can’t wait for the day my daughter comes up to me and asks where we got her name. Most people will being telling a tale of how they are named after someone in their family or a close friend. Well, our daughter won’t have that.
She follows in my footsteps.
My first name was some random “hot actress that was on TV after I was born,” as my father would put it. It would always make me laugh, because, in reality, I was just named after some random actress. Then my mom would chime in with, “Well you have my middle name; that is a family name.”
As I got older, I had learned that my Mom without knowing almost named me after my Dad’s ex-girlfriend, until my Grandma said something. That story always makes me laugh. Who else in the world would have a funny story like this?
So naturally, when I found out I was pregnant and told my husband, I started throwing out names. Every one of those names got shot down. I told my husband that I had a boy name that was not up for debate at all. When I have a son, he will be named after my favorite hockey player of all time. It was a unique name, which is what we wanted.
Then came my husband’s negotiation skills at their finest. It finally ended up with a bet. I bet we were having a boy, so I agreed with my husband that if we had a girl, he would be able to name the baby whatever he wanted, no negotiations. If we had a boy, I would name our son what I wanted, no questions asked.
Everyone thought I was crazy. “Who on earth makes a bet on their unborn child’s name?”
I wasn’t worried one bit – I was convinced we were having a boy.
That day in the ultrasound room, the lady had already yelled at us for laughing because she couldn’t get perfect pictures. We were just sitting their in silence when she joyfully said, “It’s a GIRL!”
My husband smiled. I’m still not sure if it was happiness over it being a girl like he wanted or that he won the bet. I faked a smile. The panic set in…he gets to name her, no questions asked. What on earth was I going to do? How could I get out of this bet?
Now let’s get one thing straight. I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t a boy, yes, but I was also happy to have a girl too. It took some time, because I had convinced myself so much that I was having a boy. I had everything planned out for a boy and never thought about what I would do if the baby was a girl. After some time I got very excited for a girl and now I wouldn’t trade her for anything.
Now back to this name bet. As you could imagine my husband felt powerful! I tried my best to get out of the bet. I knew if I did, he wouldn’t let me live it down or let me have my boy name if we ever do have a boy later. We had already gone over the rules:
- The child shall not be named after any family members due to people getting upset.
- I get one veto and one veto only.
- I must know all the names that are in the running before going into labor.
- The name can not be a name of any of my students that I have taught.
- The name must be unique.
Believe it or not, we did abide by all the rules. I used my one and only veto right out of the door of the hospital, as he was seriously wanting to name her Alice. Next came the wonderful 15 weeks of him throwing around names. Some he would be serious about other he would say just to see my reaction. One thing we knew for sure was that our baby girl would be born before her due date. Every doctor appointment, we walked in knowing it was a 50/50 chance of getting induced. This meant my husband had to throw out every name he could.
After 5 weeks of him joking around and me getting upset with some of the names, he narrowed it down to four that were serious. A week before we got induced, he had narrowed it down to two first names and the middle name was already decided. I actually loved both of the names he was debating and agreed that he could decide when she was born.
The day she was born was magical. The first thing out of my mouth after her being born was asking my husband what her name was. Our doctor was also waiting to hear what it was, as she knew about the bet. So now my daughter is named after my husband’s favorite singer and childhood crush and her middle name is after a comic book character. Now that I look back about the bet I still laugh. I might have been a bit crazy, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Now I get the honor of telling my daughter that her name came from a bet that daddy won.
**Please note, if we do have another child, there will be not bets placed on the name. Lesson learned! Husband had way too much power!
