What's In A Name?

[Katie-Ellen]

We didn't choose our own names, though we can always change them or adapt them. Do you FEEL like your name? Athenais, Madame de Montespan, famous mistress of Louis X1V was born Francoise and never felt it suited her so she changed it. All my life until I was 19, my parents addressed me as Ellen. Just Ellen. Siblings and friends at school called me Katie. Now I'm Katie-Ellen or Katie, either is fine, spouse always uses Katie-Ellen, but no-one calls me Ellen any more, my parents suddenly started using Katie.

Funny, these little things.

There are names we lose along the way, pet names and and nicknames, nice or nasty. My father called me Nen because when I was very small and people asked my name I used to say Katie-Nen-nen, unable to articulate Ellen properly, but the name went with him, Nen is just memory.

People think they know you, so they do, but no-one sees the whole of another person, except in essence, as a colour, as it were. Different people see different aspects.

If we've had children, we had to choose names for them, and what a responsibility. And we have to name our characters. It's a lesser responsibility, but how did you choose? Where did you start?

Dickens and his Mr Pumblechook. Yes, well, he knows what he can do with it. I ain't 'buying' Mr Pumblechook.

Favourite characters in fiction and/or film? Myths and historical fiction, the big names are ready-made handed down. Arthur, Leonidas, Elizabeth, Hannibal.

You didn't need to make it up.

Job done.

But even then.....there was a scene in a novel about Disraeli by David Butler, also made into a TV blockbuster, where a friend says, 'what shall we call you? Not Benjamin? We can't call you Ben, it sounds like a prize fighter. I know! Dizzy! We'll call you Dizzy.'

It's more than just a detail, innit?

 

[AngryPI]

My name is Richard--and I sometimes feel like a d*ck!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Who doesn't? But Richard means 'strong rule.'

Ah, now that's more like it.

Cute 'babu'. How old now?

 

[AngryPI]

10 months--my niece. I think it's my one good photo.

The nickname for Richard wasn't so kind growing up. Haha

 

[Barbara]

Interesting this name thing. I find it fascinating how we often have a 'flavour for' someone just because of their name; the association of that name. For my novels, I always choose the names of the characters very carefully. Surnames too. But I suspect all writers do that.

Me, I hate my name. Utterly detest it. Always have done. Always will do. Actually, I'm racking my brain for a pseudonym under which to write. I've had nicknames, like Bax, B., Babs, Barbie (but only once), and in my acting days I used Rayne. These days I respond to anything, even 'oi' or 'silly cow'.

 

[Patricia D]

Most versions of my name suit me - I can be Pat or Patricia, even Patrice, which is what my mother called me. However, I do NOT like Patty or Patsy.

I have three daughters-in-law, who all pronounce their name differently than their parents do. Three for three--it seems unlikely, but that's what is. I go with my DILs' choice. After all, they're the ones I most want to get along with.

As for writing: I am constantly changing my characters' names. This enables me to make lots of mistakes and generally drive myself nuts

 

[Katie-Ellen]

10 months--my niece. I think it's my one good photo.

The nickname for Richard wasn't so kind growing up. Haha

Well, you look like a doting unc and also not someone to mess with. Growing up is a total zoo. No one avoids that unless they are totally anodyne and conformable to some peer group or other...and those are the ones who by and large, do nowt much interesting later. It's not always easy, or nice, learning how to walk alone, but if you do, there's no going back and no taking that away from you. It's a long game.

 

[Amber]

I'm not sure how I feel about my name. I've always been on the fence about it. So -- it probably suits me perfectly.

I was named for a book/movie called Forever Amber. The book is one of the first bodice rippers and was banned in many states in the United States and other countries. It seems, Amber sleeps her way to comfort. I have the book but admit I haven't read it. I have it simply to have it.

The movie is so horrible its difficult not to be entertained. When I was a kid, I loved old movies and every weekend I'd scan the TV Guide for old movies I hadn't seen and Forever Amber was definitely on my list of 'to see' movies. I'd get very excited when there was a viewing and tell my Mother. Each time she managed to steer me away from watching it.

I suppose she was protecting me. But then I don't know why she gave me the name or why she told me who/what I was named after if she was going to then act as though it was shameful -- didn't she know what the movie and the book were about? In 1970s California, whenever older people heard my name there was a moment of surprise, and then uncomfortable giggles. I was always a little confused by this reaction. Some of them couldn't help themselves and would waggle their eyebrows and ask me if I was named after that Amber. It was a little weird.

Now its difficult to escape the droves of girls named Amber. Although, I suppose a new generation may be coming up, and maybe there aren't any Ambers among them. I'm egotistical enough to fail to come to terms with all of these other, young, Ambers running about. I want to say to them, "I was the first" or at least "When I was young I had to send away for a personalized pencil. They never stocked things with my name on it in stores. You youngsters take such things for granted."

But I'll be damned if the Ambers in movies and fiction aren't still sluts, strippers, prostitutes, or meangirls, all of them. Well -- most of them. I can't think of an exception at the moment but I'm sure someone else can.

I've been in real life situations where I've had to admit, Amber is my real name, not my stripper name. Although, to be totally fair, I believe they're thinking I picked it as an online name to seem alluring or provocative.

The assumptions people make are particularly odd to me because my days of being stripper like are long past and when I was young enough for it to be imaginable, I was so shy I could have been mistaken for a deaf mute.

Which ... is a lot of words about one name. I have things to say about my son's name, but I'll spare you.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've always liked my name Paul, though it's a wonder that I didn't develop an inferiority complex, for I was named after my father. With two Pauls in the house, it could get confusing, so Dad was Big Paul and I was known as Little Paul. Then, I discovered that Paul means 'small'—so, I was miniaturised twice over!

I've only ever met three other Pauls, and they were all OK, but I went through a run of knowing men called Chris, who were all dishonest idiots! It rather put me off the name, but then I worked for four years with a lovely man called Chris, who made me reconsider how a name influences a person's personality.

How a person's destiny is influenced by their name is fascinating. Put is this way, it's unlikely that there will ever be a Queen Kylie who reigns over Great Britain, as Kylie would never be chosen as a name by the upper classes.

There's also Nominative Determinism, whereby someone winds up doing the job that their surname suggests. This can be reassuring or off-putting, though some people overcome the awkwardness of their name; when I lived in Portsmouth, there was a thriving dental practice run by a Doctor Death!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Nominative determinism. Love this stuff! Just love it. Re dentist. Don't suppose he'd have fooled anyone by changing the spelling. De'ath.

I knew of a Mr Twatt, better not mention the company name as it's very much a going concern. The poor man got fed up...who wouldn't, of his name constantly being pronounced twat. He pronounced it twot. In the end he changed it to Watt.

 

[Barbara]

Poor Mr Watt.

My local paper used to have one of those 'Got Married' sections for a while where they announced who got hitched. A few years ago, they announced the marriage of a couple called 'Kate and Sydney Pie'. Hmmmm. I wonder what they served at their wedding....Steak and kidney pie perhaps?

 

[Carol Rose]

My real name is Carol Rose. Shocking, right? LOL! No clue why I'm named Carol, but the middle name is both my paternal grandmother's first name, and the obligatory saint's name given to all Catholic children of the baby boomer age. "Carol" is a bit old-fashioned now, but it was popular in the era I was born, so it fits. Love the name Rose.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Rose is a saint's name. I did not know that. As in the Rose of Lima?

I had an auntie Kitty and grandmother Ellen but they were nothing to do with it, apparently.

 

[Carol Rose]

Rose is a saint's name. I did not know that. As in the Rose of Lima?

I had an auntie Kitty and grandmother Ellen but they were nothing to do with it, apparently.

Yes! Rose of Lima.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

My name is Richard--and I sometimes feel like a d*ck!

My grandfather's name was Richard. He went by Dick. I was in my late teens before I really caught on that that nickname was way out of favour.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

My name is one of the more irritating ones to be saddled with, I think. "Is that Robin with an i or a y?" "Um...neither..." The story is my mum took French class in high school, so when they were considering the name Robin, and she felt it was too masculine, she added the French feminine ending (to an English name...go figure). In spite of the irritating spelling, I like the name. Not so fond of my middle name, Lee. However, I do love the look of the L between my first and last names, so I usually sign with my middle initial. In fact, that's the only reason I was given that middle name--all the women in my mother's line have middle names starting with L. My sister got Lynne, which I was always quite jealous of. I've had a range of nicknames...none related to my actual name.

We gave the kids unusual names for Minnesota, where they were born. Came here and our son had two classmates with the same name. LOL! We liked the name Rose, too, @Carol Rose --gave that to our daughter as her middle name. Good thing we didn't use it as her first name; she is definitely not a 'Rose'.

 

[Carol Rose]

One of my cousins is also a Carol, but her middle name is Lynn, so we called her Carol Lynn and me just Carol so they didn't get us mixed up. We're only a year apart. I was jealous she got to use her middle name, too. LOL!

 

[Marc Joan]

My real name is Carol Rose. Shocking, right? LOL! No clue why I'm named Carol, but the middle name is both my paternal grandmother's first name, and the obligatory saint's name given to all Catholic children of the baby boomer age. "Carol" is a bit old-fashioned now, but it was popular in the era I was born, so it fits. Love the name Rose.

My mum's middle name is Rose. Neither I not my siblings had any middle names, because my parents couldn't agree on them. That always annoyed me when I was a child. By way of compensation, I insisted that my kids had two middle names each. And I expect they will be annoyed at me for that -- makes filling out forms a bit of an effort. Oh well...

 

[WillHue]

We spent months trying on names for our soon to be born daughter. My wife picked Elisabeth Rose (tip of the cap to Carol) and I being a good husband said "sounds great".

It was a name that grew on me and almost forty years later it still holds up well. She goes by Beth but I sometimes call her Elisabeth.

I think her name is beautiful but then her name would be beautiful no matter what I called the apple of my eye.

That is why I think our lives can define our names rather than being defined by them.

 

[WillHue]

P.S. Characters in novels are not living and need all the help we can give them. So it's not a bad thing if they are defined by the names we give them. They won't complain about nominative determinism.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I have an MC called Sunny Adam. Sunny is short for Lysander, who was a Spartan general. Adam is the name of my brother, who's a police officer, like the MC. I swear it did not dawn on me until much later that it reads as 'son of Adam', and that is indeed, a case of nominative determinism, given a central theme of the story.

Elisabeth IS a beautiful name. Very. One of my sisters has it as a middle name, spelled differently. Sofia Elizabeth.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I'm not sure how I feel about my name. I've always been on the fence about it. So -- it probably suits me perfectly.

But I'll be damned if the Ambers in movies and fiction aren't still sluts, strippers, prostitutes, or meangirls, all of them. Well -- most of them. I can't think of an exception at the moment but I'm sure someone else can.

The current British Home Secretary is Amber Rudd. A lady with a red hot potato currently on her hands.

 

[Amber]

The current British Home Secretary is Amber Rudd. A lady with a red hot potato currently on her hands.

I know! I saw that! I thought it so unusual ... but yeah you’re right. That’s one serious Amber.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

And you're another.