What's In a Name?

When we decided on Kasia's name, I knew that confusion would follow. When they learned of her name, family & friends were puzzled...."Kasia? What's that?" Many asked if I had "made it up", which I found hilarious!! No, I assured them all, it is an actual name.... well, sort of.

It went like this:

I was having an awfully difficult time picking a name for our baby. Had she been a boy, Kasia's name would have been Giancarlo, named after Dino's father. (Whew!) Since she was a girl, I got to choose her name. Katherine was always a possibility, but what I really liked was Kate. I struggled.... could I name my daughter just Kate?? Didn't Jane Pauley name one girl out of her 9 sets of twins Kate? I couldn't do it. I saw into the future and heard those would be name lengtheners calling her Katherine and Katie and Kathy. Noooooooo!!! (Not to insult anyone, but we all have those certain names from our past that we would never consider naming our own children.)

So while talking to a friend one day, she mentioned a girl she knew. A girl named Kasia. My heart skipped a beat and I stopped her in mid-sentence to quiz her about the name and she explained....Kasia is the pet form of Katarzyna in Polish. Katarzyna in English is Katherine. Whoa. I decided right then and there and told no one.

After Kasia was born there were quite a few grumbles over her name and strange looks all around. With time though, I think it's grown on everyone and Kasia has certainly grown into her name. She is definately a Kasia, not a Katherine, Katie or Kate.

But as predicted, confusion has followed. Here are some of the crazy pronunciations we've heard along the way:

Most popular: Ka-see-ah (like the Casio watch but with an a)

Weirdest: Kay-zee-ah (embarrasing when it's yelled out into a waiting room full of people)

Funniest: Ka-zha (a la Zsa Zsa Gabor!)

My personal favourite: Ka-sigh-ah (rhymes with Messiah)

The actual pronunciation: Kasha!