What’s in a Name? {National Name Yourself Day}

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In my home, we love random fun without any sensical point intended other than silliness, which is exactly why National Name Yourself Day sounded like a brilliant idea. National Name Yourself Day is celebrated on April 9th and is an unofficial holiday with apparently no origin or creator to be found. In other words, some random person made up a goofy day and apparently it stuck! Definitely my kind of gal…or guy. You’re encouraged to participate on social media with #NationalNameYourselfDay too. Seriously? Yep there’s a hashtag for just about everything nowadays.
 
Name Day IV
So, what name would your child appoint him or herself if given a choice? Would changing names change how he views himself? What about your name, mamas? Personally, I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to be named something other than Stephanie. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with my name, but honestly, I always thought it sounded kinda nerdy (sorry other Stephanies!).
 
Last year, our entire family decided to give it a try, and not only did we give ourselves unique names, we also gave ourselves fresh identities. We wore name tags, called each other by our new names, which is harder to remember than you think, and lastly turned the day into an interesting writing activity where the big kids got to tell a story about just who this new person was.
 
Name Day I
 
We started out our day like any other, except instead of London, my 8-year-old daughter became Luna Frost. Luna Frost, I learned, was in fact a frost fairy who lives in the North Pole helping Santa make presents with her frost powers. Luna also loved reading in the fancy state of the art North Pole library, a feat my average non-fairy daughter doesn’t enjoy. I must say, I was pretty impressed with this Luna character.
 
My son, however, in classic rebellious fashion, decided to name himself Flame. Flame turned out to be a bike-loving, sunglasses-wearing, fire fairy ready to burn you to a crisp. Even though he’d be ready in two seconds flat to turn you into char, he was, after all, a good guy helping to ward off any and all evil.
 
Name Day II
 
Upon hearing that London was going to be Luna Frost, my three-year-old daughter decided she wanted to be the master of frost fairies. Who, you might ask, is this glorious master fairy?  Well, that would be none other than Jack Frost. Wearing her cute little tutu and waving around her magic wand, she brazenly froze Flame and Luna and banished them to the depths of the underworld, where she ultimately proved she was not in fact one of the “good guys.”
 
Who knew all of this creativity could exist just by changing a couple of names! It was a little odd walking outside wearing our name tags, but it was a fun experience to explain to our neighbors why we weren’t ourselves that day. Our trip to the grocery store was equally entertaining, too. And if you’re wondering if we parents changed our names too, we did. Travis and Stephanie became Mila and Pedro, a couple of runaway lovers determined to live on a faraway island…without kids.
 
Name Day III
 
I really do hope you join me on Saturday, April 9th, by changing your name (and possibly your  identity too) and prove it by using #NationalNameYourselfDay.
 

What will your new name be for National Name Yourself Day?