What's In A Name?

For as long as I can remember my parents have called me "bean." I'm not sure how old I was when the nickname started. I must have been pretty young because I have very few memories of being called by my first name, unless we were having a serious discussion (probably because I did something I shouldn't have). By the way, my first name is Alima. Pronounced Aleema. You can probably see why "bean" was an obvious nickname. The spelling leads a lot of people to pronounce my name A-LIMA, like the bean. So Lima-bean became Leema-bean, Leemie-Bean and then, most commonly, just bean.

I am almost 27 years old now and my parents, along with quite a few other relatives still call me bean. A little silly, I know, but it just stuck and it seems there's no stopping it! It used to bother me when I was a kid because I felt embarrassed in front of my friends by my silly nickname. Looking back now, I see that all kids are embarrassed by their parents, nickname or not!

Turns out my family members aren't the only ones who love nicknames! Before my husband and I even dated 2 weeks he had already given me my first nickname. 7 years later, we could fill a large book with all the nicknames he's given me over the years - each one with their own little story on how they originated! The current nickname is "nugget" in case you are curious :)

When I started my bake shop I pondered on the name for several weeks. Naturally, my husband suggested I use one of my nicknames. I wasn't sold on that idea until he mentioned "vanilla bean." I immediately loved it! Vanilla is delicious, everyone loves it and I use it in almost everything I bake. The fact that vanilla comes from a vanilla bean, which allowed me to incorporate my nickname, was just too good to be true!

And that was it - Vanilla Bean was born!