Would you avoid the initials MI?
I'm expecting a boy in six weeks, and we would like to give him a first name starting with M and a middle name starting with I. They are both family names with important meaning to us. The problem is that I work in a health field where MI means myocardial infarction--ie a heart attack. I'm worried about giving my future son initials that might lead to him being known as Heart Attack Martin (not our real last name). Is this specific enough to my narrow professional world that it's no big deal? Or is this a legitimate concern?
By anna1018
Tue, 04/17/2012 - 1:40pm
Tue, 04/17/2012 - 1:40pm
Replies
No I never would have associated it. My initials were EYE so I am sensitive to the issue but I don't think you have to worry.
I would say definitely don't worry about it!
When I first saw the title of this thread, I could not even imagine what the problem with the initials MI might be, unless it was that you had something against the state of Michigan!
i do get the perils of working in an acronym-rich field, though! I imagine there are literally hundreds of initial combos that seem really loaded to you -- but that most of us would not bat an eyelash at. I think that until and unless your son becomes a cardiologist or something, though, no one will ever notice the Myocardial Infarction link -- and by then, his peers will be mature enough not to give it a second thought. (We are not talking about initials like HIV, after all, where the acronym is part of common parlance. Laypeople, even those who know the technical term, still use "heart attack" almost exclusively.)
And actually, I think I might be sort of flattered if my nickname were Heart Attack. ;)
When I saw the title and tried to rack my brain as to what the problem with MI could possbly be, I came up with Mission Impossible :)
That said, I also work in a field rife with acronyms, so I understand where your question is coming from. However, THAT said, unless the three initials form the acronym, I don't think that it would come up terribly frequently. I don't think that it's terribly common for someone to be referred to by Initial Initial Lastname unless the person chooses to go by that for profession purposes, etc.
In your place, I wouldn't worry.
Karyn-I thought the same thing. Mission Impossible was the first thing to cross my mind. I also agree that unless the surname begins with a few certain letters to cause a further acronym like MIT, MIS, MIF, MIL, MIA, MIG, MIX then you are good.
Btw I went through the whole alphabet and those were the ones that bothered me. You may have a different reaction to them. Also, my dd's initials are inadvertantly NRA and nobody but me has ever noticed or said anything.
I'm very aware of initials, and I think that the only one of that list that actually bothers me is MIF.
MIL - Mother in law? Meh. It only really comes up in blog comments and it doesn't have to be negative :)
MIA - Actually kinda cool.
MIG - Does that mean something I'm missing? Or is it just a vaguely unpleasant sounding pseudo-word?
MIX - I think that's a very cool set of initials :)
Well as I said other people might not be bothered by them. I don't like when initials make a word or acronym. I wouldn't have done it with my dd if I had realized.
MIG-fighter jet airplane referenced in the movie Top Gun among others I'm sure
you got the others. And I really can't think of any last names beginning with X but just in case :)
I was going to say something about the X, but then I figured that there must be people out there with the surname Xavier, the go-to X name, right? :)
I didn't get the fighter jet reference, but then, I don't when I last saw Top Gun.
I started writing that I don't love it when the initials spell a word or acronym that has a very specific referent (eg. NRA), but then I was trying to think of other examples and came up with BBC, CBC, PTA, and DMV, and none of them would be dealbreakers for me. If anything, when addressed, I'd just laugh. I'd just avoid words with negative associations.
In Hebrew, my initials (KEF) mean "fun" and I've always loved that.
I really struggled to come up with what MI might stand for-"heart attack" didn't even cross my mind. I think you'll be fine.
Ditto everyone else--seriously, no worries. Also, Heart Attack Martin would be kind of an awesome moniker. Something he could consider using if he ever went into pro sports or rock music or whatever. ;)
I also work in the health field and I didn't know what you were referring to until I read your post. No one at an age where this kind of teasing is popular is going to recognize it. So no big deal.
As an RN, I totally went there. BUT I thought the I would have been the last name for this to be worried about, not first and middle initial. I think you are okay.
My daughter's initials were almost EMS, which my best friend thought was hilarious! We changed the middle name (not because of the initials) the week before she was born though. :-)
I too thought you didn't like Michigan for some reason - college sports rivalry maybe? I think you are fine.
I'm a physician so I totally understand where you are coming from but MI is pretty benign as far as initials go. My initials are ED-- emergency department or erectile dysfunction. My daughter is VD--veneral disease. Our second child will be OD--overdose or ID--identification or Idaho. I agree, you shouldn't pick HIV for initials, or maybe TB, but aside from that, there are waaaaaay to many acronyms in medicine to avoid.