8/7/09
Names
Preface: Yesterday, I was in a ferociously bad mood...my kids are lucky to have their heads still attached to their bodies...my husband almost had his bitten clean off. I am very surprised my phone is not broken (I threw it across the room and it hit the wall) I almost decided to share THAT "pleasantness" with y'all, but I found some sense and decided not to add to the unpleasantness already spread across the internet.
Today, though, much better mood and I have a story to share...NAMES. I have a name fetish. One, I hate my given name so the search for MY OWN TRUE NAME has always been important. Two, because I hate my name finding the perfect name for MY kids is important. Three, as a writer, finding perfect names for my characters is vital. Four, I am curious woman and I like discovering other's nomen stories. So, please feel free to share YOUR stories in the comments.
Video Page
The above is the inspiration for today's post. Names and WHY did you name your child THAT NAME. So watch it and then afterward read my story. (I'd vlog it but I would prolly just run over AGAIN.)
Let's first start with MY name story. The name my parents gave me: Krystal Marie. Okay, yeah it's a very nice name. Krystal was inspired by a friend of my Dad in high school (she was also a cheerleader, bleh). My mom liked the name too...it was very 70s. Thankfully her choice of Star-something was overruled. Marie: is a family tradition. One of the girls on the mother side always had an "M" name. Mildred, Marlene and now Marie. Nice names right. Yeah, everyone thinks so and everyone thinks I am batshit crazy to say the following. IT'S NOT MY NAME. I have always felt weirded out when folks called my name, highly uncomfortable. It's the same feeling you get when someone keeps calling you by the wrong name. It's not a recent thing or a teenager thing...I can remember feeling this way since I was a teeny child. So in college, a good friend gave me a new name: Birdwell. And THAT felt like home. So I have been Birdwell or Birdy ever since.
Michael Francis: I had that name picked out for my son since high school, maybe college. I like names that you can morph...Michael, Mike, Mic, Micci. They all sound awesome whether you are a lawyer, architect, rockstar, chef or paleontologist. And it's a common Irish name (I had a thing for Irish names). I also liked these two names because of two men that died in 1997: Frank Sinatra and Michael Hutchence. Really liked these two musicians and I felt their loss profoundly. When I got pregnant with my son, I DEMANDED his name to be Michael Francis, my husband had ABSOLUTELY no input at all. (I do feel bad for that now). My son prefers to be called Micci and really doesn't like to be called Michael. That's fine with me and if someday he tells me he wants it changed. I'll understand. Because I've been there.
I ran rough shot over my poor husband in the naming business. Really really really rough. Not only did I not follow his family's tradition of giving the first son the middle name of Robert, but I also refused to give my son his father's last name. I gave him mine. I feel a strong connect to my last name and I felt bad that my dad had no sons to carry on our name line (our name is common, but not our branch). So when it came to my daughter's name he had more input and I compromised more.
Lorelei Alyse: is the ONLY NAME in the history of names that we BOTH could agree on. For months we ran through lists...not one name could we both agree on...not even a little. He quickly dismissed the two girl names I had planned on...Moira Keely and Meara Blythe. He hated them. And because at the time we had planned on having another boy (Ashby Robert) Jamey was afraid Ashby would feel left out of the "M" names. (Like my stupid brother, the only "P" in a sea of "K" sounding names. Pfft) My next choice was Elizabeth. He also hated that name: it had bad connotations to him. (But I LOVED it...like Michael so many permeations: Liz, Beth, Elle, SO MANY I could go on and on) It got worse. I like traditional old names, Katherine, Isabelle, Josephine...Jamey liked newer more trendier names: Taylor, Madison, things like that. I HATED those names. Finally after calling names out to each other in the car...on the way to my OB appointment. We finally agreed upon the name Lorelei. It's pretty (yes we did get inspired by Gilmore Girls) and it's German so goes with his last name. FINALLY we came to an agreement. Alyse was a lot easier...it worked well with Lorelei. Lorelei doesn't have the versatility I would have liked but it has some...Lori, Lore, Rory. And I think it works well in a professional setting or a rockstar setting. I also gave her Jamey's last name and my last name as a second middle name.
As a concession someday when we can cough up the 200 bucks for a name change...Micci will get two middle names as well and his father's last name. See I felt bad.
Labels: Just For Fun, weirdness
12:14:00 PM -- Email --
Link --
3 Comments
Main Page
In my defense, Kistal, was a friend in highschool, note the spelling, however your name came from a dream/vision state, (36 hours awake will do that to you), as well as the tinkling of some krystals in the labour and delivery ward... hence Krystasl, and Marie, is the French for Mary, my mothers name...so there you have it. So where have you been?
Dad
Post scriptum; wanna help me with my web page?
funny, I never knew that..other then the friend/cheerleader part..and I chose Marie thank you very much...vision?? drug induced probably
I adore Heather's criteria. "Can ah scream it in a Southern accent?" I'm going to have to use that for book characters.
-P
