Two sisters, one adopted, were nick-named “shug” and “muffin” by their parents.

After being adopted in 8th grade, Gracie Francis, sophomore, was called “muffin” while her sister was called “shug” because of one little thing: their names.

The sisters have the same first name, with a minor difference in the name spelling. 

“It was kind of difficult at first; we kind of just got used to it after a while,” Gracie said. 

Gracie met her sister, Graci, in sixth grade and they slowly became best friends. When Gracie’s parents discovered Graci was in the foster system, they started keeping tabs on her and eventually filed for adoption. 

Having similar first names wasn’t a big problem for the two back then. But, after Gracie got adopted, the sisters came across a couple problems now that the girls also shared the same last name.

One included teachers checking out books to the wrong sister. Another was when one of them was trying to get a passcode changed, but the passcode ended up being changed for the other sister’s account. 

Graci Francis, sophomore, said the two sisters like to mess with teachers and students when they get the chance. One thing they like to do is pretend they don’t know each other when teachers, who have had the other sister in a previous semester or class, ask if they know the other sister. 

“We have the opportunity to do it at least once a year,” Graci said. “It’s extremely funny when they go to call our parents, and they have to explain to us that we just completely made that up.” 

When the two aren’t pranking their teachers, they are hanging out with their mutual friends who call the two by their middle names. 

Mari Blumenthal, sophomore, is friends with both sisters and said it’s not hard to differentiate their names, since she has known them since middle school. When in the same room, Blutmenthal said she points to the sister she is talking to. 

“Since I’ve been friends with them for a long time, I guess it comes naturally, but for someone who just hasn’t known them for a long time, I could see how it’s hard,” Blumenthal said. 

Lori Francis, the sisters’ mother, personally has never had a problem with the sisters’ same names, using their nicknames “Shug” and “Muffin.” 

But, one problem has been when the school would call home and not specify which sister they were talking about. She also finds it difficult when people think she’s joking about having two daughters with the same name. 

“I actually get a pretty big kick out of it when people ask questions, or if they don’t believe me,” Lori said.