What's in a name? Everything when you're 8 years old.

This morning, I had a heartbreaking conversation with Gigi.  She was in tears at breakfast for a variety of reasons, but the main one was that she misses her name.  She misses being Gigi.  Why, you ask?  Because she has to go by Genevieve or her Chinese name Ling Ling while in Taiwan.

When we were in China, someone told us that gigi is the slang word for penis in Mandarin.  But no one ever had any reaction to her name or made an issue out of it, so I figured it wasn't a very commonly used word.  Or it was kind of like the name Dick in the US, some people under the age of 12 may snicker, but it's not a big deal.

But apparently that's not going to be the case in Taiwan.  When we spent Sunday afternoon with some other ex-pat families some of the moms kindly informed me that the word "gigi" is what boys call their penises.  I thought we would just see how things played out, see if it was a big deal or not and see how Gigi reacted to it.  I didn't have to wait long.  On Tuesday we went at a pool as guests of a friend and kids (also American) at the pool informed Gigi that her name means penis in Taiwan.  She came to me immediately and said she didn't want to be called Gigi anymore.  I asked her what she wanted to do and she asked to be Genevieve or Ling Ling.

For the last two days we've been calling her Genevieve (except Amelia, who can't remember to call her Genevieve, and when she does, she adorably calls her Gevenieve.)  After 8 years of calling her Gigi, it's a bit of a mind-bender for us to call her Genevieve all the time.  This morning, through her tears, Gigi tells me she misses being Gigi, and she feels like she's always in trouble when I'm calling her Genevieve.  I'm so sad, and she's so sad, and there's really nothing we can do.  :(

This, my friends, is one of the dangers of giving your children nicknames...but who thinks of the possible consequences of a name in a foreign country when you are naming your sweet baby girl?  We certainly did not.