Amazing Grace

There are some things that seem to be against the natural order of the world, and having a baby brother who is a grandfather is one of them.

Babies being born with more hair than I have is another.

Having no respect whatsoever for these immutable laws, the delightful Macy Grace lobbed up sometime last week when least expected, perhaps starting a new trend in punctuality for our now ever so tiny bit more extended family, but certainly throwing Kate and Andrew's life into premature disarray.

There’s another law too I'm sure, which has something to do with babies' names and a generational difference, in what does and does not constitute a suitable moniker for a person to carry with them for the best part of the next century.

When it comes to owning an agreeable name, I wasn’t feeling as sorry for tiny Macy Grace as I had felt at first for many of the latest crop of new arrivals, in fact even though my opinion matters nought to anyone involved in the process, I almost instantaneously approved.

“Almost”, because I think as an elder, while acceptance of new fangled ideas in child naming is inevitable, there is a certain duty to ensure that when approval is expressed, it is done with the merest hint of begrudging. This is never, I do not hesitate to say, to take anything away from what is truly a joyous occasion, but simply to ensure that all the options have been explored before the newborn is pushed down a lifelong path of defending itself because of a moment's frivolity by its parents, who let's face it, are inevitably under some strain.

If the truth be told, this one even looks like a Macy, or at least some semblance of how I suppose a Macy is intended to look.

Jenna approves, and after all she knows a thing or two about modern naming practices, experiencing one of each new name ever invented as she does with the beginning of each new pre-prep year. I could be said she is something of a child name expert.

She’s been through the Jezebel’s and Moonbeams, and Jarrods and Rains and every combination of letters and I suspect a few numbers thrown in as well, so it came as a bit of a shock that her similarly name-hardened colleague should react so negatively when the new arrival was announced, albeit possibly in something of a mumbled shorthand.

“Poor kid”, she sighed,

“Who’d name their baby Amazing Grace?”

How I wish I'd thought of that!