Posted by Racer on September 17, 2008, at 9:41:38
In reply to Re: Name mismatch » TexasChic, posted by Dinah on September 16, 2008, at 23:12:33
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> I know it's necessary to name people as babies. But wouldn't it be nice if at age thirty or so, people were given a chance to change their first names?
>There's an artist called Kaffe Fassett (sp?) who did just that. His family let their kids pick their own names when they were old enough -- they were living in the Big Sur area at the time, so very New Age...
And I had a hellova time as a kid -- my name was old-fashioned, only other people who shared it were senior citizens -- mostly foreign, at that -- until I was about 13 and it suddenly got popular again. Soon, I'd hear people calling "Racer!" in the market, and turn to see they were calling their 3 year olds. I was a child carrying a very grown up name -- and my mother, whose name includes my old-fashioned name -- was called by a childish nickname. She sounded like a cute little girl, and I sounded like an old-fashioned old woman! I hated it.
To make matters worse, my name has what looks like an odd spelling to English speaking eyes, so a lot of people ask "why I changed the spelling?" They think I was being "unique," or that my mother decided to be "unique." Partly, I suppose, that's a benefit of immaturity -- a lot of people don't realize just how old I really am, they think I'm younger and might be in the age range to change the spelling. Well, no -- this is the same spelling that was on my great-aunt's birth certificate in 1913.
But you know what? I did grow into it. And now I laugh, because people ask me what my mother's non-shortened name is, and I get to say, "no -- it's nothing to do with her name, that's just a nickname and there is no formal form to it..." She's old enough that a lot of younger people have trouble with the concept of using her nickname, they want to be respectful.
But I also know what you mean. My handsome pusscat with the elegant name turned out to be a Freakazoid who is terrified of the entire world most of the time. He's very sweet, I adore him, but he does not live up to his elegant, unusual name -- and we can't find a shortened version for everyday. So, I usually call him Little Man. Or silly beast. And the other little monster -- the darling silly one -- gets called many things beyond her name. Fluffbudget is a popular epithet around here -- as in, "The Fluffbudget dove into my purse and pulled out tampons to play with in front of the construction workers," or "I opened the cabinet door to put away the dishes, and nearly dropped the plates when I saw The Fluffbudget sitting in there." Also Wild Thang. Among other names.
The third cat had a number of silly names created from her real name, too. The Little Man is the only one who creates problems name-wise, really, but one day maybe he'll grow some brain cells and that will improve, too.
And he certainly wouldn't have fit the name I gave him when I first saw his picture -- he looked to me then like a kitten with a Way Back Machine, and I thought "Mr Peabody" -- HAHAHAHAHAHA! That really wouldn't have worked out well!
And isn't it funny how names work with animals? Makes it seem quite important to name carefully, since so many of us do seem to grow into our names?
poster:Racer
thread:852300
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20080905/msgs/852432.html