What's in a Name?
When we became pregnant, we spent hours discussing names for our child. I wanted to pick something that would be easily pronounceable in both English and Polish. I liked old-fashioned family names, and nature names. We agreed on “Forest Bogdan” for a name if it was a boy, and “Maria Rose” if it was a girl. Both names were easily pronounceable and readable in both languages. Exhausted after giving birth, and simply grateful that we had a healthy baby boy, I made no protest when Michal asked if we could put the name Bogdan first. It was Michal’s father’s name. I knew how much it meant to him. And so Bogdan Forest Kawka was named. The name itself is ancient slavic, from the words “God” (Bog) and “Given”(dan). My American mother was delighted with her first grandchild. What are the nicknames for Bogdan? She asked. Bodzio is the common Polish diminutive form, and I spelled it for her phonetically “Bojo”. And so we called our son Bojo. He was a good baby! Then around age 1 ½...
