Baby blog nickname needed!

Back in June, when I announced that Becky and I are expecting a baby, I wrote:

One thing we will probably do is follow the lead of Glenn Reynolds and many other prominent bloggers who, when they talk about their children on their blogs, don't use the kids' real names, but instead use some sort of nickname. Glenn, for example, calls his 11-year-old "the Insta-Daughter." I haven’t thought of a catchy blog-nickname yet for the IrishTrojanSon or IrishTrojanDaughter — suggestions are welcome! — but I think I will probably go that route, just to prevent the kid from being easily, instantly Google-able starting at infancy.

That "probable" decision has become a definite plan, and I wanted to mention it again, so that it's clear to everyone as a statement of blog policy. Many of my readers will, of course, know the baby's name in due course. However, I'm asking everyone to respect our wishes and please do not mention the baby's name on the blog -- or in any other publicly accessible Internet space, for that matter. Obviously, friends and family spreading the word via e-mail is fine. But if you're going to put up an announcement on your MySpace or whatever, please leave the baby's name out of it.

Of course, we need something to call her on the blog. We've got a couple of ideas, but I thought we'd open it for suggestions again. (Criteria after the jump.)

The ideal blog-nickname for the baby would meet the following criteria:

1) Unlikely to become a "real-life" nickname (so, no initials, middle name, etc.).
2) That said, if it were to become a "real-life" nickname, it wouldn't be horribly embarrassing.
3) The kid won't rapidly outgrow it -- i.e., it doesn't only work for a baby (e.g., "Baby Loy," "Lil' Loy," "Bundle of Loy," etc.)
4) It isn't ridiculously unwieldy (e.g., "IrishTrojanDaughter") and actually sounds like something you could call someone, as a substitute for a first name, without it breaking up the flow of a sentence in a blog post or generally looking stupid in print.
5) Ideally, it would be gender-specific, so that it's instantly clear that it refers to a daughter.
6) Even more ideally, it would lend itself to similar (but not identical) nicknames for potential future kids.

I think my favorite option so far is "Knoxgirl" or "Knoxbabe" (or "KnoxGirl" or "KnoxBabe"). The thinking is that this baby will probably be the only one we have in Knoxville, and so referring to Knoxville in her blog-nickname helps out with criteria #6. Obviously, "girl" or "babe" helps with #5. And it doesn't seem to flagrantly violate any of the first four criteria.

Becky is partial to calling the kid "Scion" (as in "a descendant or heir") or "KnoxScion." She likes that it starts with "SC." (There is, in fact, a USC program specifically for SCions.) I'm not sure how I feel about that option, but I'm still considering it.

I'm also tempted to simply keep calling her "Avocado." I'm not sure if that violates criteria #2, though.

Anyway, I was just wondering if y'all have any better ideas...

Comments

[Timugen]

the iKid

or

nanoLoy

[Timugeg]

strike that, should be

iLoy nano

[Wobbly H]

The Loy Spawn

[David K.]

If its a boy, Bloy 2.0 ;-)

[Brendan Loy]

We already know it's a girl. Of course, since "Becky" also starts with a "B," I don't see why your suggestion has to be gender-specific... :)

[Brendan Loy]

(But then, what's our next kid? Bloy 3.0? Bloy 2.1?)

[Mad Max, Esquire]

McTroy

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Let me think about this. Since you are such a Mac fan. And since Mac has a new version of its operating system...Loypard.

[Condor]

How about: "The Irish"
(i.e. you forgot the Trojan)*

*Please don't ban me.

[Brendan Loy]

LOL

[jlr]

I know of a woman who decided not to find out the gender of the baby. In order to prepare her students for the baby, rather than saying "it," she called it Big Bird. But that's not exactly Loy-esque, so probably not a great idea.

Here are some ideas:

Arwen (nod to LotR)

The Lady Vol (she will be born in TN, after all)

Katrina (though that would probably be in REALLY poor taste)

The Little Hurricane (just wait until she starts to crawl... that might start looking good).

Spawn of Nerd

I'm out of ideas. Granted, all of mine sucked, but I'm not horribly creative.

[Nadine]

Mini Loy.
Works until she's taller than you or Becky.

Miss Loy.
Works until she's married.

Loy-ette or Loyette.
She will be amazingly cute. So this name will be good FOREVER.

BREBE.
Obviously BREndan BEcky.
Again, a good forever name.
[iKid BREBE?!]

[Nadine]

BREBE with the pronunciation of bree-BEE.

Thought Condor's 'The Irish' was **wonderful**

[Brendan Loy]

Loyette!! Oh my goodness. I think we may have a winner.

I'll have to ask Becky what she thinks, but I love it.

(It doesn't satisfy criteria #6, but whatever -- we'll figure out the next kid's blog nickname when we have the next kid. Cross that bridge when we come to it.)

[jlr]

Loyette is good. Besides, if you have a boy after this, we can always go with your high school nickname of Loy-Boy. :-)

[Marty West]

iLoy nano made me lol

[kcatnd]

Loyette gets my vote. I agree, wait until you actually have more kids before you come up with a naming scheme. These things are best done as you go.

I hope Becky is doing well!

[Without a Doubt]

FutureNerd! or FutureGeek! come to mind, or maybe BruinBane.

[Kat]

I like Loyette or Loyetta.

[Becky]

You know, when I was a kid, I had some trouble with inverting letters and hearing whether or not words rhymed with one another. To me, Loyette sounds like it rhymes with toilet. I don't know why I thought that when I read it, but it will drive me NUTS.

Keep thinking on it!

[kcatnd]

Loyetta then?

BloyGirl?

[MumZ]

Avocado is masculine- how about Avocada??? Unique to her...

[David K.]

Good point Becky. I'm sure something will come to you guys, could be something Christmas themed to differntiate (presumably) from future kids. Or December/winter themed.

[David K.]

How about Snowflake?

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Apple. Did anyone suggest Apple? Maybe Rumor?

[Nadine]

Since Becky brought up the problem of similar sounding words, don't use Girl Loy. It sounds like a Cantonese Chinese cuss word for someone who's gay.

[invernessie]

BL3

[invernessie]

Forgot to add:

BL1 = Brendan
BL2 = Becky
BL3 = Baby Girl Loy

Definitely meets criteria 3 and 6, perhaps a few others.

[The Monster]

Before I ever put anything on the Internet, I participated in BBS relay network discussion forums. (Fora? Speaking of which, "criteria #6" is grammatically incorrect, as "criteria" is the plural of "criterion".) I made the decision then to never refer online to my wife or daughters by their actual names, because there are Creepy People out there who might see them as targets.

Therefore, you'll only see me mention "The Bride of Monster" (abbreviated "TBoM" on second and later uses in a single post), and "Monsterette 1" and "Monsterette 2" (easily abbreviated to M1 and M2, with granddaughters M1.1 and M1.2 already born, and perhaps little brother Monsterling 1.3 to be born next year).

Which is my long-winded endorsement of "Loyette", which can become "Loyette 1" when there's a younger sister with which to confuse her.

[I R A Darth Aggie]

Son of a Loy (SOL)?

or maybe

Goober

which I might note is a) my favorite, and b) unisex. In fact, you could refer to any future children as Goober as well, and the whole lot of 'em as the Gooberites.

For example:

The little Goober stole my laptop and hid it, and refuses to give up its location. I'm thinking of water boarding the little darlin' to make him fess up.

Come on, folks, it's an Apple laptop...

[I R A Darth Aggie]

...and of course, there's the running joke of my other brother Goober...

[Alasdair]

Hmmm ... LoyXX ?

Sure, an' is dat a fittin' name for the LoyXX of Joe's grand-daughter ? (grin)

[David K.]

How about something Irish? I found this page of basic Irish words

http://www.erinsweb.com/word_review.html

Maybe your dad can help you with that one.