Monday, June 11, 2007

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Over at The Brave, Strauss was discussing the abundance of Alex's at a birthday party her son attended. It reminded me of when my stepson, Daren, first entered high school. There were three Daren's in his homeroom, and the teacher tried hard to give the boys other names to keep them distinguished from each other. Our Daren Wayne became "Duke"....after John Wayne's nickname....and it's a name that has stuck with him to this day. I think family members are the only ones who still call him Daren...he's Duke to the rest of the world, and he likes it.
Modern-day moms today seem to go overboard in finding names for their children as different as their imaginations can dream up. I know one family that boasts the names "Piper","Aspen", "Chase", "Hunter" and "Racer" (her sister had a baby at the same time and named him "Rally", so they'd have "rally racer"). Now, some of those names aren't all that bad, but they're not that common. Which I guess was what they were going for. At least they aren't as odd as, say, "Kanatanisha" or seeing "Lois" spelled as "Lowus". I tell ya, these names are out there. Do these parents ever think how this name will sound on an ADULT?

I'm not crazy about my name. I would have preferred to be a Katherine instead of a Kathleen, and would like to have been called Kate instead of Kathy. Kathy just seems so....uninteresting. My Dad called me Katina. That had a little more pizazz, but he was the only one to use it.

But when my Dad would dance me around the living room, singing Perry Como's "Kathy-O"....or "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"...I truly loved my name. And I love those memories even more.



5 comments:

strauss said...

Oh what a lovely image to leave us on - you dancnig with your Dad, that is the sweetest.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm changing the spelling of my name to "Lowus". It gives it some life or something. Don't ya think? Your name is better then mine!!! I always hated it. Sounds like an old lady name, but now I guess I'm growing into it. YIKES!!!
lab

Kathleen said...

Old lady Lowus....don't ya love it? It does sound like an older person's name...."Kathy" will never sound "old"...so I guess that's a plus!!
How's life without Garrett around? They have gone home, right??

Anonymous said...

I swear (well I don't really swear) that we must not have lived in the same house growing up! I don't remember almost all of the things you talk about in these musings! Where was I!
tlc

Kathleen said...

You don't remember dancing with Daddy? Especially when "Sing Along with Mitch" or "Lawrence Welk" was on? One of my fondest memories!
But you guys talk about things I don't remember either...I guess we remember what was important (or affected) to us.
Hey...call me and tell me about your trip!