The Magic of Your Name

When Mike and I were choosing names for our first child together, I had a leaning toward the name Luke for a boy.But Mike felt very strongly about the name Matthew and although it was not a name in either one of our families I deferred to my husband on the name Matthew. We got our boy and as he grew from baby to toddler I found myself calling him "Matts" "Mattsy" or "Matty" most of the time.
When I started researching my mother's ancestors a few years ago I little to go on as she and her family were pretty tight lipped on my grandmother's background. Grandma's family immigrated from the Austio-Hungarian Empire to Winnipeg in 1906, and it was assumed that they were Polish. I have since learned that they were actually German colonists to the area around Lv'v (which is now in the Ukraine) . When I was able to access the birth , death and marriage records of their little colony of Muenchenthal , I was amazed to find that I have a great -great-great grandfather who was named Matthius, as well as his son Matthius, my great-great grandfather ! His son Johan-my grandmother's father -also named one of his sons Mathius. My mother had told me her uncle's name was "Max".However I found out recently from one of my mother's cousins that his mother called him "Mutsy". Huh ? But of course ! With her German accent, "Mutsy" translated to "Mattsy", the same nickname I had bestowed on my own son !
I'm grateful that I didn't force the issue with my husband and demand my choice of name for our son. I never knew my great grandmother, and have only one picture of her taken when she was elderly. But I feel close to her in a "magical" way when I think of her calling her "Mutsy" to come to the table for dinner !