This holiday one of the major reasons I went home to Saskatchewan was to visit my new niece who was born in December.
However, do not ask me her name because I don’t know what it is.
Seriously, I have no idea.
It is not because she does not have a name, she does. My brother emailed it to me with a picture the day she was born.
Initially, I thought he was joking. I thought it was in another language and I had to decipher it like a cute puzzle.
Her name is Briahzia (I think) Blayk Barlow.
She is not from Ukraine or Slovakia. She is Canadian, born in Saskatchewan.
Not wanting to be rude I took a poll of my family before I saw my brother. I asked everyone from my dad to my cousin to this guy at the gas station in Piapot. I asked each and every one of them how to pronounce the name of my beautiful niece.
Each one of them gave me a different answer.
Finally, I had to ask my brother and he said it is pronounced Bree-ah-zee-ah. Oh, never heard of it.
Of course I had to inquire where they came up with the name.
Did we have ancestors in Siberia I did not know about because Briahzia does not sound very English, Irish, Dutch, French or Canadian.
He swore they found the name in a baby book and fell in love with it.
I asked him if the baby book was published in Kenya and if the language was actually Swahili?
He assured me it was not and they were sticking with the name.
I implored him, from my experience as a journalist, no one is ever going to pronounce his daughter’s name correctly or spell it properly. Even Briahzia will not be able to spell her name until she takes university level Latin.
It seems everyone wants to be different. For example, Jaxon, Jordynn and Kristel are just some of the names I have come across recently.
I guess it could be worse, I saw on the internet parents named their children Facebook and Hashtag.
There should be laws against parents being so foolish. They should be required to pay their children a handsome sum for the pain they have inflicted upon them.
Regardless, I sure do love Briahzia, but it will be Bree for me.
