the name game

fellow new mom and blogger sarah noted that the most popular names list was released today, which reminded me i've had a name blog post in my head for a while now.
here goes.
we knew the minute t2 was born he had to be john tayloe. we had a few other family names we liked, but he just looked like a tayloe, which is to say he looked like trouble.
it was important that he have a name that connected him to our family. to both of us tayloe means virginia and virginia means home. we're both a bit touched by wunderlust and maybe t2 will be too (or not), but hopefully even as he traverses the globe he'll never forget who he is (child, who are your people?). i know his dad never has.
anyway, we named him knowing he'd face a lifetime of "nice to meet you taylor"s and "dear mr. jon taylor emory" but tayloe the dad lived through it. we thought if he really hated it he could just go by john.
we also knew it wasn't exactly immune to playground meanness (gayloe).
what i never suspected was that people would actually think we named him halo.
yah.
halo.
which makes me wonder: do i look like a total dip shit?
(geoff emery, don't think i can't hear you ... )
it's funny how the brain works, isn't it? someone asks his name. i say it's tayloe as clearly as i can (like they're deaf -- TAY LOE). then they repeat whatever it most sounds like that's in their vocabulary.
taylor.
tyler.
or, um, halo.
i know that part of it is that parents have gotten really cre8tive with names and pull random nomers from far and wide to try to make a statement. Peaches. Apple. Pixie. Zen. Fifi.
so in that context i guess halo seems normal.
i.
guess.
the other part of is that the name tayloe just isn't ingrained of california history (yet).
so it's all forgivable.
but of course i can't just leave it at that. more often than not i correct strangers until they get it right. then i insist on telling them it's a family name. i do this, of course, because i have to make it known that we aren't trendsters who liked the name taylor but wanted to jazz it up a little.
telling people it's a family name is pretty senseless because family names aren't that normal here. if they were, there'd be a lot more adam goldsteins.
it gets really confusing if tayloe the dad is around because eventually they realize there are two of them and that we named our son after his father, which also isn't that normal here.
so basically, we've somehow done what many of our peers have done without meaning to. damned if you do ...
tayloe, by the way, always just tells strangers his name & t2's name is john. zzzz.