we’ve decided

After months of brainstorming and discussion, my husband and I have finally chosen our grandparent names.

I am going to be Ama. I made up the name by removing the M from Mama, which is what my kids called me. (Since announcing it, I’ve learned it’s a name that lots of other grandmas use, but I wasn’t consciously aware of it until I came up with it myself.) To me, the name invokes simplicity, warmth, earthiness, and practicality.

I puzzled out the name last week while I was holding the baby, so I ran it by him. “Well, hello there, lovey boy, it’s your Ama,” and then I paused to see how I felt. Did the name clang and clunk? Did I feel embarrassed? Was it weird?

Calling myself Ama felt strange, sure (because having a new name is kinda odd), but it didn’t feel put-on or phoney. It felt like me. So later, when I ran the name by my daughter, my husband, and my mother, and no one appeared appalled, I knew my months of indecision were over.

The poll my nieces and nephews made upon learning a baby was on the way.

My husband’s name was harder, mostly because he never thought about it, and then when he did think about it, it was only under duress and then he just vetoed all my suggestions.

The only name that he was even remotely receptive towards was Papi — pronounced “poppy” but not spelled that way because “I don’t want my name to be a flower.” 

He was drawn to Papi because he was “Papa” to our children (though they usually call him either his actual name or Dad), because I often call him Papi just for fun, and because it’s a common name in the Spanish-speaking places we’ve lived. To both of us, the name has a cozy, warm feeling.

So there you have it: we are Ama and Papi.

Of course, whether or not the wee one accepts our choices remains to be seen.

But whatever happens, we’re here for it — and for him.

This same time, years previous: six good things, redbud, the quotidian (3.28.22), update from the north, milk bread, the quotidian (3.26.18), the quotidian (3.27.17), more springtime babies, seven-minute egg, our oaf, a list, a spat.