Naming Kids

One of the thrills of teaching English is helping kids choose an "English name". I remember in Spanish class mine was "Miguel", which was the closest thing they could find to my handle. I've met a few unfortunate names here. One America bound freshman college student had named himself "Attack". Great ice breaker when he got to Missouri. I was able to convince one of my middle school girls to change "Krusty" to "Kristy", but my favorite was a ten year old boy named "Wendy".

I have a list of the most popular American boys and girls names, and I have helped kids and/or parents choose names. With the kindergarten kids I have even been entrusted to choose a name for them. There are times I've felt like Brigham Young naming his brood.

I have a class with a Sonny and a Cher (not my doing!). I have Sophie, Mary, Harry, Thomas, Emma, Elizabeth, Wendy, Lucy, Kyle, Kevin, Kaden, Megan, Molly, Eric, Tina, and many more. Since the list is American, there are names that are not exactly English in origin, and one little boy has the name his parents chose for him, a fine American name....Diego.