What's in a name?

My husband and I are both fairly traditional people. And you can tell this by our name choices for our children. We stuck with traditional, Biblical names that have been around for thousands of years.

There will be no questioning the pronunciation or spelling with names like Peter and Sarah. These names won't leave people scratching their heads wondering what we were thinking.

And while we have chosen traditional, some might even say boring, names for our children, I have always enjoyed hearing what other people are going to name their children. And I have always enjoyed hearing names that are out of the ordinary and wondering if I could have ever had the nerve to name my kid something unusual.

Like the Seinfeld episode where George wants his baby to be named Seven. After that episode, I was thinking what a cool name that would be. But I'm not cool enough or trendy enough to pull off a name like that, so I knew any kid of mine wouldn't be either.

Although, one might argue that giving a kid a name like Seven would mean that by default, they would become cool and trendy to live up to the cool and trendy name. But that's not something I was willing to play around with on my kids so we stuck with boring traditional.

Several years ago, I was at a park with my kids and I noticed a mom with twin boys. Then I heard her call one of them, "Easton, get down off the slide!" And I thought to myself, Easton? Must be a family name. Wonder what the other little boys name is? And as I was thinking to myself, Oh, no! I hope it's not...

"Weston! Stop throwing dirt at Easton!"

Oh, no! She did not name her twins Easton and Weston, I kept thinking to myself. But she really did. And for some reason, for the rest of the day I couldn't get the Pet Shop Boys song West End Girls out of my head.

In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls

But as time has passed, I can sort of see how she and her husband might have thought this was a good idea. And as time has passed, I can sort of see how it works as an interesting alternative to rhyming twin names. Even though, I don't really even think people do that any more.

And who am I to judge? This same mom would probably think Peter and Sarah are the two most boring traditional kid names in the world. But, I would have to argue with her and explain the difference between traditional and boring. And there is a difference...just ask my husband.

Anyway, I was at the pool one day last week waiting for Jennifer to arrive with her kids. I heard another mom holler to one of her kids, "Vidalia! Get over her so I can get some more sunscreen on your back!"

My ears perked up. I cocked my head and thought to myself, Vidalia? Did she really just call her kid Vidalia? I must have heard that wrong.

So I listened closer and I heard it again. "Vidalia! I said get over her!"

My mouth dropped open. I could not even begin to imagine naming your child after an onion.

An onion!

Now granted, Vidalias are the sweetest, best tasting onion ever created. Just ask anyone in the South. But naming your child after one?! I had never heard of this before!

I'm trying to cut this mom some slack. Perhaps, this girl was conceived in the town of Vidalia, Georgia - the town the best tasting onion in the world is named after.

Or, perhaps Vidalia is just a really, really old Southern name that I've never heard of. I'm in North Carolina which may not be Deep South enough for this name.

Or, perhaps this mom was trying to outdo the people in Hollywood. Because if Gwyneth Paltrow can name her daughter Apple, why can't this mom name her daughter Vidalia?

Or, perhaps this mom just really likes onions?

I'm not going to judge because as William Shakespeare put it so eloquently:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose onion
By any other name would smell as sweet."