What’s in a Name?

Av’s kindergarten orientation was Tuesday. This made us feel the following emotions (not necessarily in this order):

anxious, controlling, ecstatic, excited, happy, impatient, nervous, proud, sad, satisfied, serendipitous, surprised, unprepared, welcomed

I mean — this is our kid! This is a milestone for us! True, he’s been at a full-day program since several months after he was born. He grew up with his current pre-school friends while they were all babies, then toddlers, and now kids who can read a bit, do math, and assimilate vocabulary. (Tonight before bedtime he asked us, out of the blue, what a “trial basis” was. Weird…) But this is a different situation: new school, new kids, new environment.

I can imagine this will be a bit nerve-racking for him. None of his pre-school friends will be attending his new school. He knows one kid who will be in his class — a kid whose mom and I were housemates at college for a year. But aside from that? he doesn’t know anyone. (Neither do we — aside from the ones we’ve met through the school).

His current pre-school meets in a church nearby. Av is the only Jewish kid in the school (as far as we know) — and his customs can be a bit different: instead of calling me Dad, I’m Aba (Hebrew for Dad). He also doesn’t celebrate Christmas but explained the customs of Hanukah. During Passover there were quite a few dietary restrictions which we had to explain to the teachers (many of whom, being traditional Muslims, already understand dietary restrictions as they’re used to Halal food). It’s been a wonderful experience for him in a diverse environment, And I’m sure that the friendships we and he have made thus far will continue for quite a while.

His new school is a Jewish private school. It was an important and sometimes tricky decision to make, sending him to a school which is (a) considerably further away from our home than his pre-school and the local public school; (b) considerably more expensive than his pre-school and, of course, the local public school. We decided to go this route, however, based on classroom size (11-12 kids in each class instead of 25) and the curriculum (which includes general and Judaic studies — and contains a language immersion program in Hebrew starting at the kindergarten level) among other factors. It means we’re cutting back on a whole lot of things in order to afford this, but hey — this has been a top priority right from the start. We don’t have a plasma TV, an Acura in the garage (or a garage at all!), an XBOX or a Wii. We have tuition.

I’ve always been intrigued by names — especially the names children are given by their parents. There’s a fascinating chapter about children’s names in Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, correlating certain naming trends to race, parental levels of education, and more. We happened to give our son a unique name (at least in this country, but apparently not in this blogosphere) which stems from his Hebrew name. We weren’t surprised that he was the only Avi in his preschool — a place which had its share of kids named Walker, Paige, David, Abdullah, Margaret, Nayeh, Sophie and Christiana. But what about in a Jewish school? Are the other parents as freaky as we are when it comes to names?

I present you with the names of the kids for the upcoming kindergarten class:

1. Abbie
2. Alex
3. Avi
4. Benjamin (x2)
5. Daniel
6. Gabriel
7. Jacob
8. Jacqueline
9. Liora
10. Maya
11. Madelyn
12. Miriam
13. Nathan
14. Noa
15. Rachel
16. Rome
17. Sebastian
18. Solomon
19. Tobbi

So — no other Avis in the class. There are four kids (including Av) whose names are anglicized versions of Hebrew names. Which means we’re not necessarily the only weird ones. 🙂

Nine of the kids — just about half of them — have overtly Biblical names. Some people mistake Avi’s name for being a shortened version of “Abraham.” Nope — Just Avi. I guess it shows a sense of tradition…

Then there’s Jacqueline. I’ve always found that name to be mysterious and sexy — simply because of the “qu” factor. I feel the same way about Monique. And Raquel. And Quincy.

As for Rome? Sebastian? Those sound like prep school names. But who knows? Certainly not I — I don’t know who these kids are or will be. They could end up being Av’s best friends. Or not. Only time will tell.

All I know is that I think we made the right decision for our family. The place felt like home to Avi. And that’s far more important than any name.