Name this!

I've been thinking about baby names a lot recently. Not because I'm even halfway contemplating having another one of my own, thanks very much, but because in the space of just a few months, four babies will be born to three of my closest friends, and each of these unknowing little babes was given a very colorful in-utero nickname. The Fetus Formerly Known as Baby Eightball arrived first, and she was given the less quirky but much more beautiful name Samantha Rose. When my sister-in-law announced she was pregnant with twins last Thanksgiving, my two daughters quickly decided the babies would be named Elmo Boots and Snoopy Benjamin, and they have been referred to by those monikers ever since. We're all lobbying now to keep those names on the birth certificate, but I have a feeling they'll go a more traditional, less furry route. The fourth baby on the way is called Lefty, because her mom is convinced she's got a southpaw growing in there.

I wonder if any of these nicknames will stick around after the babies are born and become regular Joes, Janes or Isabelles. A former baby-sitter of mine told me about another child she watched, whose name was—I swear—Poopie. If it was just a nickname, the parents weren't telling, but I could only imagine the kind of diaper explosion in the maternity ward that would inspire that name. I guess Elmo Boots isn't so bad after all.