What’s (not) in a name?

I still have my maiden name, which means my surname is my father’s first name. HD has his father’s first name as his surname. Right from the moment we found out we were pregnant, like every other couple we started thinking about a name. Not just a name but also a surname. What would our child’s surname be? Shall we keep His' surname? But it’s my father in laws first name. I can’t keep my father in laws first name as my child’s surname. It will sound weird. Why can’t we keep my surname then? At least it will be my father’s first name. Knowing I was talking silly, HD made sense by telling "Lets keep my fist name then". But its too long said I. Poor child of ours. S/he (we did nt know the sex then you see) will have a tough time if s/he goes to pardes. The US/UK/Schengen visa department will have a tough time pronouncing. And s/he ll sound old with that name. Why don’t we keep the shorter version of your name just like everyone calls you? So all settled then. It's going to be the fist part of HD's first name. By this time 2 trimesters had gone and it was crunch time to find a first name for the kid. Since we could nt find the sex of the baby (Ashu was quite a lady and crossed her legs in both the ultrasounds and would nt let us know that she was a girl!), we had to look for both a boy and a girls name. As we had to register the birth immediately, we would nt have much time after the delivery. In the mean time I was having nightmares that I am unconscious and I deliver a baby and HD names the baby without asking me. So we had to decide fast. We made a short list and decided on the names at last just before going to the hospital. Anyway, coming back to the surname, now all 3 of us have 3 different surnames and we are all the same family. Why can’t we just have the initials like we used to in those days? Now we sound weirder if that’s possible.

The first ever Post Ashu got while we were in Swiss got returned to the sender because only our surnames were in the postbox. Her's was nt, And what do u think the post was? Her birth certificate! I am sure this naming business is going to haunt us the rest of our lives. One of my friends said that she’s going to keep her husbands surname for one kid and her surname for the other. I hope she keeps her word and does that. We will look a little less weird that way. All said and done, I am very sure Ashu is going to grow up and call us some pretty special names!