Jam

My friend Whitney just wrote a post about a boy/girl child in her sons' class named Juice. In my third grade class this year, I have a little girl named Jam.
When I put together my classroom blog I had my class make up "pen names," ensuring their safety and privacy. I told the kids they could use any nickname they would like. I even suggested that their middle names could be used as a pseudonym.
As I collected names for each of my students, I noticed some children were really excited about their new names. I had a little girl change hers about 3 times because she wanted it to be just right. Some kids put hours of thought into their aliases, but several just used their middle names.
Near the end of the list, I asked a little brown haired girl what she wanted her blog name to be. She told me "Jam." I thought it was a clever name for her, and I wondered if there was a story behind her nickname. Then, it occurred to me to ask her mother what her middle name is. When her mom came to an assembly the next day, I asked, "What is *****'s middle name?" She replied, "Jan. Why?" Just as I had begun to suspect.
Yeah. So maybe "Juice" is a like "Jam"--a little confused. The only difference is, "Jam" wasn't given her name, she chose it with her own ears.