Alright, because I already put up the short post today about the new Featured Bloggers?
Check out their awesomeness under Come Here, by the way. Down there on the right.
Anyway, because I already put up that post? Not as many of you are going to be coming back to read this post right here.
But because I am all obsessive and driven? I am not able to stop myself. An announcement does not count as a real post. And I post every day.
Because I am a crazy person.
So today? I will tell you the story of Maj’s name.
When I was pregnant with Maj, I fell in love with a series of books written by a husband and wife team named Per Wahloo and Maj Sjovall. Swedish police procedurals . . . mysteries . . . if you have never heard of them? Read them. So fucking awesome.
Atmospheric and spare and character driven . . . just amazing.
And so I passed the books along to Mark, who also loved them.
Mark and I don’t always read the same books, so to connect over this series?
Swoon!
I fell in love with the authors. Fell in love with their ability to work together to create magic with their words. Fell in love with the notion of the two of them being in love. And I fell in love with the woman’s name . . . Maj.
We found out very early on that our unborn baby was a girl, and so she was Maj.
We talked to her constantly. Referred to her constantly. Waited for Maj.
We pronounce Maj like the Taj in Taj Mahal, by the way.
So beautiful.
We were all happy.
And then? I was like six months pregnant, in a used bookstore looking for a copy of one of these books to send to a friend, and the person behind the counter said, “Oh, I love Maj Sjovall and Per Wahloo! They’re amazing!”
Only she pronounced Maj as My.
And she sounded quite confident about that pronunciation.
Uh oh.
I hurried pregnantly home to do some on-line research.
Damn it.
Maj was not pronounced Maj like in Taj Mahal.
Maj was My.
Fuck.
Because I was pregnant, I cried a little bit. And by “cried a little bit,” I mean I fell weeping hysterically into Mark’s puzzled arms, babbling about how we had fucked up our daughter’s name. How I didn’t want to call her My, that My was the dumbest name I had ever ever heard of, and how could we have been so stupid? Everyone was going to think we were insane.
I was raving . . . How could we name our child a possessive? How could we ever ask where she was or what she was doing or what she wanted? We were going to sound like fucking idiots!
Where is my?
What is my doing?
What does my want to eat?
See? Augh! We can’t do this to our child! Now she doesn’t have a name! She is all unnamed and wondering, “What’s my name?” and I have to tell her that my is her name. It’s like an Abbot and Costello routine! Augh! Think of another name right this instant! I have to get my out of my head! We are so fucking stupid! Why didn’t we look up how to pronounce her name! Think of another name! AUGH!
Mark loved pregnant me so much. I was all reasonable.
When I finally calmed down, Mark pointed out that we got to name our baby whatever we wanted. No reason we couldn’t name her Maj like in Taj Mahal. It was a beautiful name. No reason our version wasn’t the correct version as far as our daughter was concerned.
Mark really is all reasonable like that when I get all babbly. Love that.
So Maj stayed Maj . . . like in Taj Mahal.
I love her name.
Maj loves her name.
Although every once in a while? Someone new will pronounce her name “correctly.”
And Maj gets all annoyed and glares at me, annoyed that she has to correct the pronunciation of her name to the mistaken version her parents have named her. Annoyed that she has to correct this person who is, technically . . . correct. She hates that.
She loves her name, but Maj hates that we made a mistake in naming her.
Her parents are all kinds of lame and fucked up.
Snort!
Whenever Maj is all crabby because someone knowledgeable has referred to her as My?
I always tell her that she is all kinds of lucky we didn’t take her Grandma Rose’s naming advice.
My mom wanted us to name our first-born daughter . . .
Hephzibah.
True story.
Can you imagine?
Snort!
In my head, I always pronounced it like the first syllable of Major. Glad you cleared that up for me :-) Great name and she gets the bonus of saying “Maj, like Taj Mahal” when people ask for clarification!
Guess what?
We get a certain amount of junk mail addressed to the Major who apparently lives at our house.
Snort!
If I had a Hephzibah? I would call her Zib.
And Maj has a really beautiful, beautiful name.
Off to scurry to the library request page!
Zib!
Hee hee!
I cannot imagine calling Maj . . . Zib.
Heppy.
Maj would love to be called Heppy.
I am all giggles now.
I mis-pronounced her name for a few weeks until reading a pronunciation you gave, but not by pronouncing it MY, but by pronouncing it “Madge.”
Which of course is rude and I apologize.
But in my head it was because it was short for something wonderful like “Majestic.”
My name is short for Lorelei.
Which is beautiful, but I forget that it’s my name.
So when people call me “Lorelei,” I mostly forget to answer.
And fucking NO ONE can pronounce Lorelei right.
Yay.
Yes, Maj gets a lot of Madge.
When people call her Madge? Maj glares at them with such potent hatred? They know immediately that they have not only made a mistake?
But offended her deeply.
Snort!
Maj is all powerful.
And Lorelei is a beautiful name.
And I do too know how to pronounce it.
Isn’t Lorelei pronounced like “Lore-el-I”? If not, then I’ve been pronouncing it wrong too.
I’m so glad that Kris cleared up Maj’s name pronunciation!
Yes! That IS how it’s pronounced.
I get
Lor ELL ee
Lora LEE
Lori LEE
The show “The GIlmore GIrls” helped a little, it’s better now. But they spelled it wrong.
*sigh*
My first Cabbage Patch Kid was Lorelei and I LOVED that name.
Awww . . . I have a soft spot for Cabbage Patch dolls since Maj’s love affair with big-headed Uma.
People are stupid.
And I have never seen The Gilmore Girls.
There is a Lorelei?
YOU’VE NEVER SEEN GILMORE GIRLS!!! That shocks me. I love that show.
Nope.
Not once.
A good show?
Very. Funny, entertaining. Very mom/daughter good. Will make you laugh. The girls would actually like it too, I’d bet.
I will have to check that out.
There are in fact TWO Lorelei’s! Both the mom and daughter have the same name, but the daughter goes by Rory.
Ooooh . . . an expert!
I never watched the Gilmore Girls, but I knew there was a Lorelei in there. It’s the dark haired mom who’s in Parenthood now, isn’t it?
I ADORE the name Lorelei, but it would NOT match with our last name at all. At.all.
Yes, last names do cause problems.
I know ours did.
Whew. I thought I had it wrong too. But I was right. And I was right in my head about Maj too. My daughter is Addasyn. Like add-a-sin. Not Addison like add-ih-sun. I love names.
Oh, that’s beautiful.
Addasyn.
Love that!
We named our daughter Lorelei after the character on Gilmore Girls. :) I hate how people don’t know how to pronouce it too. grrr
The funny thing is, we are living in Germany right now and they have a myth/folklore about a siren who lured men to their death on the Rhine River. Her name was Lorelei and they even have a rock that you can go to. The Germans look at us wierd when they hear her name, they must think we are heathens. lol
If we ever travel to Sweden?
Maj is going to fucking kill me.
Seriously.
Snort!
Ha! It would bring lots of hilarious stories if you did travel there. ;)
I love her name and glad that she loves it too. It is always nice to be unique in somethings. You both did a wonderful job in name-picking! :)
Thanks, you.
Maj would be all cranky in Sweden.
Just the thought makes me giggle.
Many things in my life are mermaid-motiff because of my name.
Which is ok.
I’m cool with mermaids.
I love you as a mermaid!
Happy sighs.
I’m sure your mom is a lovely person, but Hephzibah? Just a few letters away from Hezbollah, and really, who needs to go through life with that kind of pressure?
Yes, that would have been bad.
My mother is a loon.
I have often wondered where you got her name. I have thought to ask you, but usually it’s when I’m not on the computer.
I thought her name was pronounced like “Madge.” So I never knew the difference! I now know how to pronounce it “correctly”! Thanks!
People have asked me, but I always forget to explain here on Pretty All True.
And then several people asked me last night on Twitter, and i realized that I had never gotten around to doing that.
Maj will be pleased to know that everyone has her name correct now.
And annoyed if she discovers it took me this long to straighten things out.
Hee hee!
First? I am secretly all proud of myself because I’ve been saying Maj right in my head.
Second? I was all reasonably and shit when I was pregnant the first time too. Snort. My oldest is actually Maya (shhhh), pronounced my-uh, and I heard it and loved it from that second on and from then on it was her name. Then we made the mistake of telling someone in my family, who promptly said, you can’t use that it’s a non-real name. WTF??? The next equally awesome person said, you meant Mia right? Asshats. I flipped out, but in the end, we named her Maya anyway. (I still have an aunt who calls her Mia. Because Maya just isn’t a southern enough name, so she can’t remember it. Her words.) She loves it, because it’s not popular. However, she is pissed at me all the time for her middle name. Shrug. We can’t win.
In other news, I never told a single dam person either of my other kids names until after they were born. When they pushed me? I lied. Then I’d tell a completely different name to the next person.
I love the name Maya!
And Mark and I did not tell anyone else Maj’s name until she was born.
I just knew we were going to get crap, and I was just not in the fucking mood. So we didn’t tell anyone until it was too late for them to say anything but hello . . .
To Maj.
And what is your daughter’s middle name? Your comment makes it sound as though her middle name is Shrug.
It’s not, is it?
Although that would be pretty awesome.
Snort. No. Her middle name is Elise. After her dad’s cousin who died as a kid.
In M’s mind, it is the ugliest name I could have ever agreed to in the history of names, ever, MOTHER. Ha.
She tells people it is Rose. Which is a perfectly beautiful and dignified name in her mind. Not one I’m fond of, but whatever.
I love Elise.
My middle name is Ellen, after my mother’s best friend.
I have always loved my middle name.
And Elise?
That’s all musical and lovely.
It really works and to me it’s very pretty. To her, it’s not pretty enough. She believes I favored her sister in the name department.
My middle name is Anne, after my great grandmother. I’ve always loved it.
Also? I can talk names all day. So feel free to start ignoring me.
Hee hee!
I would never ignore you.
And Anne is nice and strong.
You know what name I never got to use, but which I still love?
Maren.
Love that name.
I love that name.
I’d love to name a little girl Annie. Just one of my favorites. My ex wasn’t a fan.
The boy name I’d love to have given to my son is Beckett. But I let my ex win that one.
See?
And this is why I need more pets.
Hee hee!
yep.
Glad I was saying it right all along.
Its so different.
she has a rock star name.
Maj would love that.
A rock star name.
Yay! I have been pronouncing Maj’s name correctly.
The kind of day I’ve been having, this is my one claim to correctness fame, so I am totally tooting my own horn.
I do love her name, by the way. Love Kallen’s too but all the sudden am drawing a blank about the spelling … -en or -an?
Weary sigh.
Thanks for turning me on to some new authors. Not for turning me on … that was the other day.
Happy sigh.
Kallan is spelled with two a’s.
And Maj will be all kinds of pleased to hear that you guys have been saying her name correctly!
She loves when people get things right the first time.
I annoy her.
Often.
You have got to read Henning Mankell; also Swedish, also a brilliant “lose yourself in the story” writer!
Then? Go watch the BBC series with Kenneth Branagh playing the lead character Kurt Wallander.
In your words?
Swoon!
Oh, good lord . . . I have read every translated word that Mankell has ever written.
Are you kidding me?
Love him.
And also love the BBC series.
Serious swoonage.
I love this story and I hope everyone comes back today to read this one…which they will…because you are awesome.
Also? Maj would hate the way I have been saying her name in my head for the past 6 months that I have been reading you. In my head? It sounds nothing like Taj!
Snort!
I won’t tell her.
It never occurs to me to write out how to pronounce Maj’s name. I always just see it as I say it.
Hee hee!
I’m sitting here, trying to figure out if I pronounced her name (in my head) as Madge or Maj as in Taj Majal. I think it was somewhere in the middle. How weird is it that now that all these different pronunciations are out there, that I can’t recall how it sounded in my head?
Anyway, I was all weird about names and totally unreasonable when pregnant. First, we had to have two names picked out and then we would decide when we saw the baby. I liked Jack, Hubby liked Nicholas (this is for baby #1).
I was watching the tv series Friends while being 9 months preggo and it was the end of the series, where Monica was giving birth and gave birth to twins without realizing they were pregnant with twins. I can’t for the life of me remember what they named the girl, but when the boy came out, I look at my hubby and said, “If they name it Jack, I will cry. Everyone will then want to name their child Jack and there will a million Jack’s running around.” I’ll be damned if they didn’t say “Jack.” I cried like an idiot. But, we still went on and named our first born Jack.
When preggo with #2, I had the same rules. 2 names. Except we couldn’t think of anything but Nicholas (which psycho hubby then said that he didn’t like?? What the hell??) So I made him promise that if Nick didn’t look like a Nick, that we would come up with something else at the hospital. Yeah, I’m all sorts of reasonable.
And now that I wrote a book in your comments, I’m done. You’re welcome.
Okay, and because I can’t leave this alone, I figured out my “in my head” pronunciation. First syllable like “Madge”, (that annoying midwestern “ahhh” sound), with a soft “J” sound at the end. Phew. So glad I figured that out.
I told this story the other day here in these comments, but it is worth telling here again.
When I was pregnant with Kallan . . .
If she had turned out to be a boy, Mark wanted to name the baby Jack. Jack is a great name, and comes from both sides of our family.
And for a middle name? Mark was partial to Daniel. Also a great name, from both sides of our family.
That would have meant our son was named Jack Daniel.
Ummmm . . . no.
Luckily? Kallan was a girl.
Fast-forward several years to the purchase of our second dog.
Mark insisted on naming the dog Jack, because he hadn’t gotten to name a son Jack.
Guess what the dog’s middle name is?
Hee hee!
Stupid work internet…blocking my comments…anyway let’s try again.
When I was 3, my mom gave birth to a son. Her one and only. My brother. He was born with severe brain damage from an in utero cord accident and only lived a little less than 3 months. Anyway, that’s not the point of this…the point is, she named him Samuel Adam. A biblical name, sure. But seriously, Samuel Adam?!? I mean she doesn’t even drink!!
So she had a Courtney Leigh, Amanda Jean (Mandie), Samuel Adam, Aleatha Nicole (Nikki)…can you tell she’s from the south?
Those names are fabulous and about as Southern as can be.
Samuel Adam is making me giggle, though.
Mark would love that name.
that is so weird! Who ever heard of a dog named Jack HeHe? Probably gave him a complex.
That dog has been a crazy dog since he was born.
The name would not have mattered.
He is insane.
I’m glad you wrote this entry because I’ve been pronouncing it with a hard ‘j’ in my head. I’ve basically been calling her “Madge”, Maj is much prettier. Tell her people mispronounce names no matter how you spell them, legally my name is spelled “Casey” and I cannot tell you how often people pronounce it “Cassie,” it’s everything I can do to not give them a lecture about open and closed syllables and long and short vowels.
I love your name!
I have a sister named Cassidy who comments here sometimes.
She took all kinds of grief for her name, growing up as she did in the era of Shaun Cassidy.
Hee hee!
Kris can you do a post on Kallan’s name too? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Yes, that is on my list of things to do.
Thank you!
I love her name. I also was pronouncing it wrong in my head but your correct pronunciation is wonderful.
Thank you.
OMG i love how you pronounce it, thats how i would have pronounced it. Her parents are clearly mean lol.
Snort!