What's In A Name?

One of my staff members just went out on maternity leave this week. She had her second boy on Saturday. Her first little one's name is Trevor. Last week, she spent most of her time waddling around the office mumbling about how her chosen name of Eli may not fit a child who is only supposed to be 8#. She thought that a name like Eli deserves a big body and considering Trevor was over 10# (oh my God, is all I have to say about that), perhaps she should reconsider the name.

Meanwhile, just around the corner another staff member just got back from court and asked me to proof read and approve a mass email going out to the whole organization. It read something like, "Life's spiritual journeys lead us down different paths. Mine has lead me to a name change. I am now Faziah Musaawe. " She then put in the pronunciation with what her name meant...something like virtuous woman kneeling before God. She had her name legally changed. Now, I have to try and quell everyone talking under their breath about how crazy she is and try to remember that no longer do I have Susan-Deborah-Jane-Mary-Anne, but Fa-eeesi-wa Moo-su-a-vae for a leadership staff person.

I know I've touched on this before, about how names are such a touchy subject, but DAMN! When I was little, Ginny would often forget the name of whoever she was talking about and would then call them, "Joe Pete." For the longest time I thought Joe Pete was an actual person. Now I find I use the phrase all the time.

Names can create family rivalry or unity. One of my girlfriends refused to tell anyone her chosen names until after her twins were born because of her sisters-in-law, who were due before she was and could potentially steal the names. My sister in law, who is due May 10th, gave her mom and grandmother a photo of her fetus for Christmas with both of their namesakes labeled on the image. Yup, can't compete with that kind of drama. And we all thought that my cousin was certifiably loony when she named her second daughter after her sister. Hell, I have treated families in therapy for that kind of incest.

Seems to me that little Eli doesn't have an issue on his hands. If he thinks he's too small for his name, he can go change it legally to Joe-Pete in the future.