Names
The recent TS Cindy reminded me of when we
evacuated for Hurricane Rita which hit western Louisiana a month after Katrina
hit the east side of the state. Dutifully, we headed north right up Hwy 171. In
Des Moines, Iowa we stopped for the night. The clerk asked my name, I told her
she said, “is that with one or two ‘r’s?” I was not use to the question but
soon discovered it made a difference in what part of the country we happened to
be whether my name was spelled with one or two r’s/
Strange but my father always spelled my name with two. He also spelled my sister’s name with ‘ie.” The rest of the world spelled it Betty but Dad said ‘y’ was for a boy and ‘ie’ for a girl. Spelling do make a difference. I misspelled my daughter’s name on her birth certificate; I put an extra ‘I.’ She’s stuck with it.
I think about boys who have ‘junior’ tacked on the end to distinguish them from their peers. My younger brother added a Roman numeral I after his name. He intended to be an ancestor not a descendant. Little did he realize that he was descended from a long line of men with his name, (Steve).
In the Bible, when Elizabeth gave birth to her son, the people wanted to name him after his father. Because of his doubt, Zacharias could not speak, he wrote the name John and was given back his voice. A name can be a powerful thing. (Not to be confused with the apostle John.)
Homesick, people placed ‘New’ in front of their past to indicate a start somewhere different. I am so glad to clear up the confusion of the spelling of my name now if I could just get the pronunciation of ‘Shaw’ down where this would not be an issue.
Strange but my father always spelled my name with two. He also spelled my sister’s name with ‘ie.” The rest of the world spelled it Betty but Dad said ‘y’ was for a boy and ‘ie’ for a girl. Spelling do make a difference. I misspelled my daughter’s name on her birth certificate; I put an extra ‘I.’ She’s stuck with it.
I think about boys who have ‘junior’ tacked on the end to distinguish them from their peers. My younger brother added a Roman numeral I after his name. He intended to be an ancestor not a descendant. Little did he realize that he was descended from a long line of men with his name, (Steve).
In the Bible, when Elizabeth gave birth to her son, the people wanted to name him after his father. Because of his doubt, Zacharias could not speak, he wrote the name John and was given back his voice. A name can be a powerful thing. (Not to be confused with the apostle John.)
Homesick, people placed ‘New’ in front of their past to indicate a start somewhere different. I am so glad to clear up the confusion of the spelling of my name now if I could just get the pronunciation of ‘Shaw’ down where this would not be an issue.
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