A funny story:
On her 60th birthday this weekend, Karen was in her usual practical joking mood! I mentioned to her that my mom keeps asking me what the baby’s name will be, and she suggested we think of a name joke we could play on her. Given that it was her birthday, we figured mom might fall for it if Karen said my birthday present to her was telling her the name early.
We brainstormed a few crazy names, but I didn’t think my mom would believe any of them. Since I love nature names, I started rattling off names of trees: “Chestnut?” “Oak?” “Pecan”
We paused at Pecan – because Pecans sounds like PeKANZ! (Recall Kanz is Matt’s nickname). It could stand for little Kanz! My mom knows the name is non-traditional, has meaning and a cute nickname, so it seemed reasonable that this could be it.
Karen went to the computer to write my mom the following email:
Barbara,
Please, please don’t tell Koops I told you this; I thought you should know, however, so you can get over the shock as I’m trying to do.
She told me that since she and Matt love the outdoors, they wanted a "nature" name. They decided on "Pecan" but want him called PeKanz, as in "little" Kanz.
I think it’s awful but I bit my tongue. Discuss with Cliff and we can talk about whether we should say something. They’re so independent, though, that I don’t know if they’ll listen to us. I think it’s awful to saddle a kid with that kind of name.
Karen
Karen and I were both laughing hysterically proofreading it!
Ultimately, my mother didn’t fall for the joke, but Matt’s brother Andrew did!
Karen forwarded the email to him and within 5 minutes he called her back — not to mention that he was at a LSU game with his girlfriend. He said "This has got to be a joke." Karen said it wasn’t and told Andrew he should probably call Matt and give him a talk to try to change his mind “since he won’t listen to me,” she said. Andrew said it wasn’t his place, but gosh was this bad! He told her that he’d be embarrassed to tell his co-workers (who know about the impending birth) that the baby’s name is Pecan and while explaining the whole Kanz nickname in the process. He knew the name might be more modern, but he said this was really bad! Karen and Andrew had a great laugh when she told him it was a joke!
Needless to say, the baby’s name is not Pecan!
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{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL that’s hilarious!
I loved this!
Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, too cute. Enjoy your day Kath.
That is so funny! Karen seems like a fun MIL.
Oh my goodness….that is TOO funny!
Ha! Hilarious. Come on PeKanz!
Sadly that’s better than most celebrity baby names!
HAHAHA! That’s great! What did your mom say??
she didn’t buy it at all. Started joking about tree middle names
I am cracking up. My mother totally would have fallen for it!
We are having a fussy morning at this house and that was just the story I needed to read to lighten the mood! Thank you!
Thanks for laugh. I started chuckling here at my desk at work.
That is hilarious! I’m surprised she didn’t buy it. It sounded totally legit….your mom must know you pretty well!
Hahaha, that story made my morning.
HAHAHAHA…that is awesome.
HAHA!! Your mother-in-law is hilarious! That was a great laugh for this Monday morning! Thank you.
Naming your baby “pecan”!
Love this story!! What’s the chance Baby Kerf will now be called “Pekanz” as a joke nickname based on this story alone…?
You guys are hysterical….thanks for the laugh!
LOL!! Of all the terrible names people saddle their kids with these days, Pecan wouldn’t be too bad! Of course you’d have the constant issue of Northern vs Southern vs Midwestern pronunciation! Too funny!
Yes, the pronunciation issue! I read this whole story (chuckling as I went along, especially at the email text – that was brilliant) wondering which way your family pronounces “pecan.”
We say “Pee-kahn” (not “pee-can”) and Kanz is pronounced “Kahnz” and not “Cans” : )
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing! I’m always hesitant to say anything about names, so I probably would have bit my tongue, too, but completely believed it
We didn’t try to pull a fast one on anyone, but my dad did refer to Anderson as “James Tiberius” while I was pregnant. My husband called me one day, and told me he liked Tiberius as a name for the baby. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not. I was relaying the info to my parents, and they both kind of laughed and shook their heads. It was later my dad called me and said, “Do you know who James T. Kirk is?” Captain Kirk, whose middle name was Tiberius! Ahhhh. My husband the nerd strikes again! After I figured out which Tiberius he wanted to name our son after, it became more of a firm “no” for me.
Then we ended up naming him Anderson…..an idea we got while watching The Matrix, two days before hew as born. Nerdy from the start!
bahahaha. love this. especially since I am a Star Trek fan
Anderson is pretty cool too!
That. is. awesome.
Totally cute little story! Ha!
What fun that your family jokes around with each other!
….I was going to tell you- I know this sounds crazy but while I was at the hospital the one thing I REALLY needed and never would have thought about was a night light! I needed to be able to see while I nursed at 3:00 am and didn’t want to trip over everything in an unfamiliar place. We had to end up keeping the hospital room door open and it made for an AWFUL night- not due to baby Jackson but due to the hospital beeps and vacuuming at random hours of the early, early morning. Just thought I’d share my little tid-bit from post delivery that I had never heard of anyone neeeeeeding.
That is so funny. Going along with the nut theme you could have named future siblings almond, cashew, filbert, etc. What a “nut” that Karen is. Hope your little pecan arrives soon.
You’re such a fantastic story-teller. Loved reading this post. I feel as if I can hear you telling it…what a gift. Very funny, too. Love that your baby is coming into such a warm, funny, smart, loving family. Best gift ever.
This seriously had me laughing out LOUD!
That’s hilarious! Her email sounds so genuine, I’m surprised your mom didn’t’ fall for it, haha
That is awesome!! LOL
My husband has been telling everyone that our babe’s middle name will be Frankenstein…I think he secretly wants it to be for real…I will not let this happen! (If we have her a week before my EDD, she would be born on Oct 31st)
Fingers crossed that little nut comes ASAP!
Hahaha love it
I am laughing out loud. Too funny! Good for you for keeping your sense of humor even at 40+ weeks. The end is so hard but so worth it!!!
hahahahaha!!! Made my day! Thanks for sharing this hilarious story!
Loved this!!
Happy belated b-day to Karen!
My husband and I joke and laugh about silly names all the time … Our little girl is due Christmas Day, and I’ve gotten a lot of warnings NOT to name her anything like Noel or Holly. I kinda thought Noel would’ve been a cute middle name, but not now. Her first name will be Esther … We haven’t told many people in person yet because of the dreaded name backlash. Kath, is that why you haven’t told people your name, including your parents? But you do have a full name picked? I wouldn’t be able to keep the secret! People are going to start hearing me call my baby girl her name soon — I look like a crazy person calling my beer belly Esther these days. Good luck with the waiting game!
We just don’t want to hear all the “are you SURE about the name” doubt and opinions that come along with sharing early – and also since we found out the sex early, we wanted to keep something a surprise! We don’t use the name around the house – just a few times to see how it feels.
I LOVE Esther! Kath’s middle name is Ann after my great-aunt, Esther Ann. Her nickname was Essie. She was a real character and pretty and smart and elegant. I bet your Esther will be too!
Thanks! These are the name comments I like to hear.
We chose Esther after my husband’s paternal grandmother, and she was one of the most amazing women I’ve ever known — she had the same qualities your great aunt Esther Ann had! We want to give our daughter a family name that fit a person we’d be happy to see her emulate one day.
I laughed out loud – good one!!! Your parents are such good sports!
i love this story Kath!!
you have an awesome family. XOXO
i mean “nutty” family!
That is hysterical!!! I was laughing while reading your post! I think PeKanz is an adorable nickname for Baby Younger-Monson, & especially since it has meaning behind it. In fact, I think Matt should come up with a new bread or cookie or muffin recipe that has pecans in it as a tribute to his son
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
awesome
WAIT!!!! I did not get credit for my clever response. I wrote, “Yes and their daughter will be named Almond Macadamia,” which I actually think is a lovely name for a little sister to Pecan.
Cliff wasn’t so sure it was a joke, and after that, I started to get kind of a sinking feeling…Could it be true?
Rumor is that Laura’s Matt likes it though!
Haha – glad it caught dad off guard!
But in just a minute I had my nickname for him: Pec, pronouced Peck, a nickname that Mom’s growing up neighborhood friend Merple’s brother had.
Thanks for sharing! What a funny story!
Hahaha best post on BERF ever!!!!!!
That is awesome! We aren’t sharing our name for the same reason, as you. Just to keep one thing as just ours.(I also like not dealing with the “I knew a girl named X in high school and she was such a B” nonsense too). But then the hubs spilled the beans and now a few people know. Sigh. That boy can’t ever keep a secret – he has to buy Christmas presents on Christmas Eve because he gets too excited.
Haha – awesome! Karen is hilarious!
I live in Austin and on KUT, the local NPR affiliate, they always have locals telling random life stories and then give the station identification (you’re listening to KUT…). One of my favorites was about a couple who moved to Austin and their family was convinced they’d give their kid some Austin-y hippie name. They told the family they were going to name the kid Banjo and insisted on referring to him as that. Turns out all that use ended up making them love the name, so they named him Benjamin and call him Banjo. I see Mazen was born before you fell in love with Pecan, but it could’ve happened.