What's in a Name?

Hi! My name is...


Judah (about 10 months ago) with one of his favorate people--Ms. Mur Mur.


Apparently, my baby's name is not Judah.

It's Dee-ya-ya.

He's been calling himself Dee-ya-ya for at least 6 months and it's driving me crazy.  I thought it would change as he learned to enunciate better, but now it's clear that it's here to stay.

Clearly it's not an issue with his pronounciation abilities since he can say the sound "Ju-" perfectly as he calls for "juice" all day long.  And "Da" is even easier to say.  And we ALWAYS call him Judah.

Or Bay-bay.

Or Goo-bee.

Or Gay-gay.

Or Goo-beez-goo.

Which should not at all be confusing for a toddler who's just beginning to identify objects and their names.  Right?

Incidentally, his nanny's name actually sounds like Dee-ya-ya and that's what Judah calls her too.  So they have the same name in Judah's world.  Some kind of identity conflation?

Hmmm...puzzles of the toddler mind.