My Cousins and Their Children

Even though my dad is the oldest of his siblings, four of his sisters are already grandparents. His sisters married young and started their families more or less immediately Their children didn't waste any time in adding to the Earth's overpopulation problem, either. Eight of my cousins on my dad's side, most of them female, already have one or more children.

My grandmother says that her grandchildren have been highly creative in naming their children. She says that because the names they have chosen weren't, for the most part, common or even invented yet when she named her children, nor were they even in vogue when her children were naming their own offspring. (An interesting sidebar to this is that my grandmother's youngest daughter, who is my aunt Christelle, has an almost-one-year-old child and is expecting her second. With the large families common to Mormons, it's not highly unusual to be anticipating grandchildren and grand-grandchildren simultaneously.) If you're familiar with my married cousins' peer groups, however, you probably recognize that the names they've chosen are roughly as cliche as were Lisa and Michael, Jennifer and Jason, Jessica and Christopher, or Emily and Jacob in their respective heights of popularity, particularly when regional trends are considered.

One thing I've noticed is that the names of many of my little first-cousins-one-removed rhyme with one another.  I'll give you examples. Four of my cousins' kids are named Kayden, Jayden, Aiden, and Brayden.
Abother four are named Chase, Jace, Case, and Trace. Another five are named Riley, Brileigh, Kylee, Miley, and Skyleigh. The  names rhyming with one another do not necessarily belong to children from the same immediate family. Kayden and Case are siblings, as are Trace and Skyleigh.

My cousins have four additional children whose names are not part of the rhyme schemes. James Orson;s name comes from God knows where. Isabella's mother is a Twilight fan  Spencer Gordon's parents wished to acknowledge church history. Ethan's parents just liked the name.

My grandmother thinks her grandchildren are highly creative, though many of them haven't had an original thought in their entire lives. Contrast that with my Aunt Christelle, who named her baby Blitzen Manx.  I have no desire to know from where that one came.