Relieved to Be Called Amy Hussein S.

In response to idiotic inferences made by conservative talk show radio host Bill Cunningham at a Cincinnati McCain rally that Barack Obama is somehow a terrorist because he has a Muslim middle name (gee, what a BRILLIANT foreign relations strategy...just what we need), those crazy gals over at MOMocrats have started a fun meme.

This is my first time as a meme participant, so I'm all a-flutter. We're supposed to tell a story of how someone tried to make us feel bad about our name. And so, I dedicate this post to all the Amys out there, particularly the 268,942 of you who were born in the 70s.

Sadly, I am the only person who has ever made me feel bad about my name. My name is just way too boring to make fun of. Three letters...nowhere go with that, not even to make a good nickname. My dad and brother call me "Aim" sometimes ("Hey, Aim?"), but that's about the most creative anyone's gotten, unless you count the time the boy I had a crush on all throughout my childhood decided to make a game out of my name for a few weeks and would yell "AAAAAAIIIIIIIIM-ELA" every time he saw me. That was about the only time I ever liked my name.

Of course I experimented with all kinds of creative ways to spell my name to make it more interesting. I was determined to spell it with an "i" so I could draw a little heart over it.

Amie
Aimee
Aimy
Aimey

The other problem with my name is that it's one that even today gets lost in the crowd. I was not terribly surprised to learn (don'cha just love Google!) that Amy was the number two baby name in the 1970s (I'd feel bad for all the Jennifers out there, but at least you got some nickname options). There were six Amys on my elementary school bus. There were several Amys in my freshman college dorm. There are three Amys living in my relatively small subdivision and I'm one of two Amys in my department at work. There are so many Amys out in the blogosphere (including at least one other Amy S.) that I've started signing my blog comments Amy@UWM.

So when MOMocrats asked us to all adopt the middle name Hussein to stick it to old Bill Cunningham, I was more than thrilled to do it and not just because I'm a huge Obama fan. I now FINALLY have a name that has some pizazz AND will help set me apart from the crowd.

I am proud to call myself Amy Hussein S.

Relieved to Be Called Amy Hussein S.