Only 98 others

I have always been fond of my name. This is one thing I think my parents did do pretty well for each of us kids. Each of my siblings names are equally as appealling if you want my opinion.

Often in college classmates would respond to my name when I introduced myself by also telling me about their 83 year old grandmother in South Carolina named Betsy. I was still flattered and felt wiser just from the complement. I've only met a few other lucky Betsy's luckily named Betsy and all of them are charmers in their own way. I even like the root of my name. Elizabeth is the root of my name and you can look it up if you dont believe me and no,...I dont know why Betsy is short for Elizabeth but it is.... Certainly it is confusing to go by a name that isnt your first middle or last name but it is worth it I have come to conclude. Even among name changing on everything from Delta skymiles accounts to magazine subsciptions once we were married...it was a fight but I am okay with the fight since I have such a great name.
I've always loved aliteration, too, so I wont try to pretend when you tell me how cute my new name is that I had never thought about it before. I, like many of my bashful girl friends, wrote down the lastname of a suitor with my name just to see if there was a shot at a love connection. Once I wrote down my soon-to-be-new-lastname that beautifully begins with a "B" -I was sold! (aside from the many other more compelling qualities about my husband.) I immediatly was wisked away to a land where "Betsy B____" would be the author of a quirky-girly-stream-of-consciousness type book or a party planner for a big hotel in NewYork or maybe even a News anchor. I always wanted to be the weather girl on Chanel 2??? Oh... the shoes I would fill with my new name!

Not to add, my new other half's perfect first name is "Brad." I like to call him B-rad, though.
Does this story get any better? Don't you want to invite us to dinner just to say "Brad and Betsy B_____ are coming over for suppa?" The only down side to this cute little story is that I always wanted to name some of my offspring with cute little "B" names that I had written in a secret journal in 6th grade. Now I refuse to be a family full of B's with a "B" lastname. I can maybe name a second child a "B" name because then you wouldnt think it purposeful.

The funny thing is that when Brad and I were engaged everything seemed to have to do with the cute little letter "B". We planned our wedding at a Bed and Breakfast. We had the rehearsal dinner in a Barn. We cheered on our Beloved Bulldawgs everyweekend. Brad adores beer. And backside's. My backside that is. He had started working at a Bank aptly titled with two B's in the name.....it goes on. I don't have an answer as to why all these obnoxious "b"s" had taken over my vocabulary but after a few weeks - I was done with anything "B".... And that is when we began to get every wedding present in the mail with a monogrammed "B" on it. We are grateful let's just say that. We will never have trouble teaching our children this 2nd letter of the alphabet for sure.

Last Friday I was home sick from work. Between laundry, Oprah, cleaning, and naps I was addicted to this website that tells you the popularity of a name in Georgia. Ashley amd Christopher were the top 2 names though in the last decade with everyone trying to give their child a headstart in the world - the top names had changed to names like "Madison" (a recent favorite of mine) and "William." Very eloquent, unique sounding names I would agree. But not much to your surprise, Betsy was one of only 98 other lucky ladies in the Peach State. And I must have married well because "Bradford" was 1 of 160. Conclusion: our parents our super educated, amazing people who deserve accolades for naming their children with names that would eventually sound great together and usually stand out in a crowd.

We have no excuses. As my highschool's slogan would say..."I'm going to "B" Somebody!"

Check out your name on the AJC's website: http://projects.ajc.com/names/search/