"Lijah"

Last year, when Lijah was in kindergarten, he decided to go by "Lijah" instead of Eli.  Michael and I thought that sounded cute, and so we started calling him Lijah most of the time.  And I liked the fact that Lijah was a unique nickname (I never met anyone growing up in my generation who was named Elijah or Eli, so I thought it was a rather uncommon name.  I knew that since Elijah is in the Bible, it isn't a super unusual name, but I never thought of it as a common name.  But it seemed like within a year or so of his birth, everyone I met had a son, brother, or nephew named Elijah or Eli.  I prefer less common names, so he won't have to be "Eli B." in school growing up because there will often be other Elis in his classes.  So, anyway, one reason I liked "Lijah" is that he'll probably never meet another Lijah).

After he decided to be called Lijah in kindergarten, for several months he seemed to go back and forth between calling himself Lijah and Eli.  Michael and I got used to it, and we both call him Lijah now most of the time, although we do say Eli once in a while.  Lijah's brothers often still call him Eli, but I did notice Camden saying Lijah for the first time the other day.  And all this year in school his teacher has written Lijah on everything (because I asked him at the beginning of the school year and he said he did still want to go by Lijah).      A few months ago I noticed that he was writing Eli on his papers, and I wondered if he wanted to go back to being called Eli, but when I asked him about it I found that he was doing that just because it was shorter to write (I did the exact same thing in elementary school -- I wrote Stef on my papers just because it was shorter, and for a while I even tried to go by my middle name, Lynn, although that never caught on).

But lately I've noticed that Lijah wants to be called Lijah, and anytime he sees me writing Elijah, he corrects me and wants me to write Lijah.  When I was filling out the school registration forms for next year there was a space to write what name the child goes by, and I asked him what he wants to be called at school and he didn't hesitate when he said Lijah.  So, I guess Lijah it is from now on.  He's decided this at a good time, I guess, since we'll be moving so we can just introduce him as Lijah to everyone at school and church after the move.  The only thing that would make it tough for "Lijah" to stick is family calling him Eli instead.  I'm assuming that his brothers will eventually get used to calling him Lijah if everyone else does, and as Lijah continues correcting people.  But I thought I'd ask if family members and friends would mind trying to call him Lijah from now on too.  I know it takes a while to get used to calling him something new, but I figure that since he's stuck with this for over a year now, everyone else might as well try too.  That'll help so it's not confusing, if everyone tries to use the same name for him.  Thanks!