But What Are You Gonna Call Her?

"What's her name?"

"Matilda."

"Oh . . . What are you gonna call her?"

The name was subject of much discussion during our hospital stay. It is interesting, though, to see people's reactions to the name Matilda. It is usually a look of surprise, or that flustered, "I don't know what to say because i think it is hideous" look.

Then there are those that praise us for choosing an unusual or uncommon name. But the most common response is, "Well, what are you going to call her?" As if they automatically assume that we chose the name out of some family obligation and that we couldn't possibly actually like the name, and so, "Will she be a Mattie, or a Tilly?" It has become quite the joke between Todd and me.

We actually DO like the name Matilda, though. But if you must, feel free to call her something else: "Tilda," "Mat," and even "Tiller" have already been thrown out there. I like "Mamie," which seems like a flapper or witch's name, but I don't know if it will stick. Tilda has that "actress of the stage and screen" sound to it. Mat, which is what my sister calls her, has a certain cute tomboyishness about it. And Tiller, which is what my grandmother called her own Aunt Matilda, is what my Dad has started using. Todd is not crazy about it, (this coming from a man whose family included a Henrietta, pronounced, and spelled, "Henry Etter!") but I think it is fun and unusual, in an earthy, southern kind of way.

Most people, unsolicited for their gems of naming wisdom, but eager to bestow them upon us anyway, suggest that we use either, "Mattie" or "Tillie." These are fine names for someone else's child, but for me they are unacceptable: "mattie" could possibly make people think that we had actually named our child "Madison," that most detestable and common girl name, in my opinion, and Tillie was the name of my cousins' mother's horse when we were growing up. (For Alpharettians/Roswellians, we used to ride this horse at a barn located where the silos are located at Houze Rd. and Crabapple Rds. And that's all that was there! Now there is a Kroger, and the Ingles sits on the location of the old barn. I will never get used to how different that area looks than it does in my childhood memories!)

But I digress.

The question is: What are we gonna call her?

Why, her given name of course! We're going to call her Matilda.