Well, it's not how we did it....

A couple of days ago we became grandparents again. We're now the proud forbears of a real Canadian grandson, Canada being one of very few remaining countries in the world, or so I'm told, which bestows its nationality on any baby born within its borders.

 

Since the baby was born in the middle of the UK night we weren't immediately   telephoned with the glad tidings, unlike the grandparents on the distaff side who were. Not that that rankles. At all. Or Much. Or anything. Because after all why should it? Why shouldn't  we only be told hours and hours after  they were? I'm sure there's an excellent reason for keeping us out of that particularly loop.

 

Bitterness aside, I woke up to an e-mail yesterday telling me the baby was born, and very little else, other than that Son No 1 was e-mailing us because it was the middle of our night and anyway his wife had the phone because she was ringing her parents with the news....and that there was no name yet. We waited most of the day for more news and he rang about 7.00 pm and we were able to hear our new grandson screaming in the background, so nothing wrong with his lungs then. Mother and new son both fine, older son having slight problems with an out of joint nose, but that's only to be expected and I'm sure will pass. But still no name and not likely to be one 'for a few days yet'.

 

And my question here has to be why? Why no name? It's not as though the arrival of the baby took them by surprise. They've known it was on the way for about 8 months. For about half that time they have known that it was going to be a boy. So sometime in the last 30-36 weeks they couldn't  find a few minutes to talk about names?

 

We didn't know on either occasion what gender our babies were going to be, but by the time they were born we had names ready and waiting for whatever turned up.

 

And I know all the stuff about 'not being sure what they'll look like' 'after s/he was born  we decided Jill/Jack just wouldn't suit her/him' but even allowing for that there could be a short list couldn't there? Because there are heaps of names in the baby naming books, like Marmaduke and Ermintrude, that you can just dismiss from consideration immediately.

 

It's not that I'm all that bothered what they call him, he's their baby and it's completely their choice, just as our children wee ours and their names were our choices. There is one name that I devoutly hope they don't alight on, but if they do I'll live with it.

 

But I am strangely unsettled by this inability to give this new child a name. It's not a logical thing at all, just  some strange atavistic feeling that without a name there isn't really a person there. Who are you, after all, without a name?