Naming rights

Carter has informed us he doesn't want to be called Carter anymore. This isn't the first time he has lodged this complaint.

It started in kindergarten when they sang that lovely song to get everyone to know each other's names: "Carter, Carter, bo-Barter, fee-fi-fo Farter, Carter ..." You see the problem.

So every time he hears the ol' Carter Farter thing, we get a new round of protests. "Why did you name me that?! I don't like my name!" What kid does?

Some do. And good for them. There will always be some mean rotten little kids who make fun of people's names. In my family, our names were punishment enough (well, for some of us).

I got lucky with Robyn and have learned to tolerate seeing it spelled with an I instead of a Y. My brother Ron and sister Rachel had "normal" names. The others were just unique: Rayna, Romey, Renell, RoAnn and Raylene.

See a pattern? Yes, my mom had a thing for R's and her sister did with L's. I guess I continued that with our 3 C's: Casey, Clayton and Carter.

As parents, we have a huge responsibility when it comes to naming rights of our children. To be fair, we asked Carter what he'd rather be called. C.J. for Carter Joseph? or maybe Carla, says Dad.

Carter isn't sure but he likes "Snipe."

I guess we're still in negotiations.