Do you know what a “meme” is? I had a rough idea of what it means in the blogging world. But for the sake of thorough research, I looked it up in Wikipedia.

My head exploded. No seriously. Read just the first paragraph:

A meme (pronounced /?mi?m/, rhyming with “cream”[1]) is a postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, and is transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. (The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word mimema for “something imitated”.)[2] Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.[3] Memeticists have not empirically proven the existence of discrete memes or their proposed mechanism (compare the status of Platonic forms or of concepts such as “ideals”), and memes (as distinct from ideas or cultural phenomena) do not form part of the consensus of mainstream social sciences.

See? Kaboom, and next thing you know, you’re picking skull shrapnel out of the ceiling.

To save you from that fate, here is my thoroughly-researched-and-evaluated definition of a “meme.”

The lazy blogger’s cheat sheet.

That’s it. Memes have been around so long in blogland that they’re considered “old skool.” I’ve never traced one back to its creator, but I’d guess that some creative person comes up with a list of questions …on pretty much any topic they want… and answers them on their blog. At the end, they “tag” 3,5,10 or a bajillion people (which means challenging them to do the meme on THEIR blog).

So anyway, I’m feeling lazy and not at all creative and I read a Tweet from Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife saying that SHE was doing a meme and even though she didn’t specifically tag me (but didn’t specifically NOT tag me because she kinda tagged everyone) I decided to participate in this meme on …

Naming Your Kids:

1. Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?

None. Unless you count that Charlie and I were both named after our father and grandfather. (I always WAS a tomboy…)

2. Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names?

I had one pre-selected name that I came up with after a mission trip to Mexico in college. My teammates and I bonded with one little girl at one of our locations, and I loved her name. It was pronounced AH-BEE-GAH-EEL. Aka Abigail in English. It took three kids, but I did get to use the name.

3. Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?

Yes and yes. We mostly focused on first/last combos. Rachel was eliminated because Rachel Wetzel was just a little too rhythmic. We both liked the name William for a boy. But we were sure that would become Will or Willy, and then eventually “Wee Willy Wetzel”. No.

4. Did you have veto powers?

Charlie mostly had veto powers. I came up with most of the ideas. It was his job to say no. (A job he took quite seriously)

5. Did the baby naming cause arguments?

Not really. But when I was pregnant with Little Charlie, I made the mistake of telling Charlie’s dad (Charles Sr.) that we were THINKING about naming our son Charles William III. I knew I was in trouble when Dad started crying. Charlie didn’t like feeling obligated to keep a name based on my thinking out loud, but what were we gonna do? Of course, from LC’s birth we were glad we’d done it.

6. Do you think it is easier to name boys or girls?

I don’t think it matters. We generally like names with meaning or history. Baby name books contain thousands of those for both genders.

7. Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind?

I don’t think I did. I’ll have to check with Charlie.

8. Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?

No. Charlie and I discussed names for the girls (since I managed to avoid promising any family namesakes with them) ad nauseum. But we really didn’t tell anyone what we were thinking until after the girls were born.

9. Did you tell people the name or possible names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”?

See #8. Not really.

10. Did you use baby name books?

YES. And lists online. And the Bible. And dictionaries. Research turns us on. Naming a baby was just a good excuse to learn more about Greek and Germanic deities.

Drumroll please…What did you name your kids?

I’ve already explained our son’s name, Charles William Wetzel III. The girls are Hannah and Abigail. Hannah shares a middle name with my mom. And Abby’s middle name is the feminine version of the name of a friend and mentor to both of us.

Both girls know the stories of their Biblical namesakes (I Samuel 1 and 25), and we love to discuss how they resemble them. LC doesn’t have a Biblical counterpart. But Charles comes from Karl which means “man.” So he likes to demonstrate his “manliness” whenever that comes up. (Right now this involves flexing, growling, and farting.)

***

Wow. That was easy. I’m gonna have to do meme-y posts more often. And just to give you the same gift Jo-Lynne gave, if you WANT to participate in this meme, consider yourself TAGGED.