We haven't yet decided what to call the kid

I'm not talking about the bogus pseudonym I may coin for purposes of this blog. I'm talking about what we're actually going to call the child around the house.

Don't worry; our grandbaby has a name. You can't get out the hospital these days without completing a birth certificate. I'm surprised they don't make the newborn sign up for a social security number right then, too.

We always had names for our kids before we went to the hospital. In those days, of course, new parents weren't always aware whether their newborn would be a boy or a girl so we had to have two names picked out just in case.

And we always did -- with one exception.

Middle Son had to be a boy. My wife and I were in easy agreement about his name -- but we couldn't agree on a girl's name at all. My story is that the boy, were he a girl, would have been named "Female" (pronounced fe-molly) but my wife disputes that. "They always brought me the birth certificate to sign," she says. "You were usually not around for that."

Olaf and Younger Daughter knew they would have a girl and they picked out a name early on.

As is typical, my wife and I were the last to know their choice.

The child is named after both of her grandmothers -- my wife's name being first. But we haven't yet decided what to call her.

Long Suffering Spouse is not reluctant to share her name with the child; she just feels weird saying her name and meaning someone else. And, besides, as she has pointed out for many years, no one pronounces Long Suffering Spouse's real name correctly anyway -- and the kid will fare no better. Her young parents will learn in time.

So the question is... what to call the child.

I think babies tend to grow into names. Something more or less just 'sticks,' whatever may be written on the birth certificate. Sometimes these names match up with what's on paper -- sometimes the given name and the name that's used are totally different. I know families where an older sibling has effectively named a new arrival, hanging a nickname on a kid in toddlerhood that survives to old age. But this new one is the first of her kind; no sibling can do that to her.

I've called my granddaughter various things in the past couple of weeks. Brunhilde. Esmeralda. The Blob. The Lump. Nancy Noisy. I've also called her Princess Rain in the Pants, but that handle is too long and -- hopefully -- will be no longer be accurate or descriptive in a couple of years.

Baby seems to work for now. The Baby, if we're being formal.

This will change.

Maybe when she sleeps through the night.