Kaija

Well, this is my middle name. I had the P.E./leather shop teacher who liked to mispronounce everyone whole name during roll call and he came to my name on the first day of school. He mispronounced my extremely common first name perfectly, then he stuttered on Kaija, because he wasn't entirely sure how to mispronounce it. "Kah- errr... Kah-ee uhmm... uh kah-EE-juh!" Later he asked my how I pronounced and I said "It's Ky-a and it's Finnish and it means seagull" whether the seagull thing is completely true or not. I was always told it was Norwegian meaning sky but now I don't think so. I was named after my cousin who died. It's a fun conversation starter: "Betcha can't spell my middle name!" I also really like the papukaija association; it might just be my new nickname (that is, if it's pronounced pa-poo-KIE-uh)! I just plain love my middle name!

I never did like this name. The Finnish word for a parrot is 'papukaija', and I can't get past that association.