Baby Names!

hey everyone!

i was reading my google reader today, and someone posted this article on most popular baby names of 2009 in NYC, and i was shocked to see that mia made it to the list!!

http://gothamist.com/2009/12/02/sophia_and_jayden_oust_isabella_and.php

i couldn't believe my eyes b/c my name has never been a very popular name, and now - after 26 years of living, it has finally happened! i was pretty happy to see that i was in the top 10, b/c growing up, mia, for some reason, was hard for people to pronounce.

people seem to always first guess to say it like maya. other times, when i order food, people write my name down as mea. (and honestly, that just looks like such an ugly combination of letters!)

anyhoo, i'm glad that the name is coming back into style. but it reminded me of how i tried to change my name a lot when i was younger.

7th grade - i really wanted to be julie. i thought it was such a lovely name. it was cute, but pretty. unfortunately, i hated the pairing of julie joo. too many j's and too many ooh syllables. so i had to forego that dream pretty quickly.

9th grade - i really wanted to be christine. i thought, yeah, this name is mature sounding, but also delicate. christine joo - that doesn't have any weird alliteration, and it's got a good flow. but for some reason, all my friends couldn't imagine me as a christine. so again, had to forego that dream.

10th grade - i really wanted to be misty. hahaha. i know, i know. it's ludicrous. but hear me out - this was prior to the days of pokemon, so misty was still an unknown, non-cartoon-associated name. i loved it b/c it kept the M of my real name, and it had a mysterious quality, but also a fun, quirky side. i wanted to be known as a the girl who was mysterious, fun, but quirky! but as u can expect, misty was horribly ridiculed by my buddies, and they, fortunately, convinced me out of it.

in the end, i never ended up changing my name, and i even grew to like my name. i grew to enjoy the rarity of my name, and how i'd always be unique somehow. even if i may look and act like a lot of other asian girls - at least in name, i'd always be set apart.

so to all the mia's out there being born in 2009, welcome to my world! but it will probably be a different world for u b/c apparently most nyc babies will be named mia. haha! ur story will be opposite of mine. but hey, we're still a unique group of girls! =)