What's My Name?

Meet the new addition to our family, Brody, uh, Buddy, no maybe it's Ragnar, no, um, Jed. We're having a naming dilemma in the family. It's mostly between Bea and me. Bea and I are so alike it's painful sometimes, and here's a perfect example of our typical conflicts. She wants to call the dog Buddy. I want to call the dog Jed.
Now I don't know why she likes "Buddy" so much. I admit, it has a nice ring to it, sort of. It's what the foster family called him. According to his vet papers his name was Brody. Buddy is easy to say. He is definitely a buddy. An all around sweet dog with no hang-ups, other than he's not used to being inside. He was a farm dog, now he's a small town dog.
I want to call him Jed, because I love the name Jedediah. If I ever have a boy child, I want to call him Jedediah, but according to my husband, that ain't happenin'. Okay fine. So the name is relegated to pets and role playing game characters. I played a Brother Jed (Jedediah) once, in Dogs in the Vineyard, and he was big and excellent. The other reason I want to call him Jed is that he and I were born in the same part of the country. He was found in Senatobia, MS. I was born in Memphis, TN. (Look at a map. They're close). And when I think of Tennessee, my place of birth, I can't help but think of the Grateful Dead song "Tennessee Jed." I used to queue it up in the tape player when I drove home from college, and once I hit the Tennessee state line, I'd play it.
As it stands now, I will pay Bea $10 for naming rights. She will probably refer to him as Buddy for a while, but just as she called Ingrid "James" for a couple of weeks, I'm hoping she'll come around, and he'll be Jed. If not, I know it's really a bad idea to spar like this with a 7 year old. I know what I was like as a 7 year old. I could learn to live with Buddy.