Read an interesting article in our paper today about babies being named after cities. I've never quite understood the need to saddle a child with an unusual name. Perhaps this is because my mom has a very unique name and doesn't like it. I'm much more intrigued by family names, names with some history, names that surpass a certain moment in time.
My oldest daughter has a slew of friends named "ashley" all spelled in a variety of ways, but pronounced the same. Both girls have friends with what would pass as a surname for a first name. Very trendy and very stuck in a 'moment.' I would guess that because of the Twilight phenomena we will see a boatload of Bellas and Edwards in the years ahead. Ugh.
Names do come in and out of style....we don't see too many Marilyns, or Lucys or Agnes names these days, but other names from years gone by are still around. Some names are timeless and hence we still see babies being named Sara, Claire, Anne and Elizabeth!
One of the things I like about fiction writing is that I get to come up with names for my characters and I love to hear stories about how authors select names for the people in their novels. But, feel sorry for the poor folk who end up sharing a name with a famous character, like Harry Potter. I'm sure that poor man gets his share of clever jokes lobbed at him. He probably wishes he had a magic wand and could turn the jokesters into toads!
3 comments:
Interesting observations, Liz ! Alan's mom said his dad did not want a Junior, so 'Alan' came from an English novel she was reading.
(There's a story about Alan's father's name... and why he would not saddle a child of his with it...)
Since both of us use our Middle names, which causes confusion at times, we decided to name our children names they could use. First girl for two grandmothers, first boy for two grandfathers - per tradition. Others for family members and/or dear friends.
ALL five have hames that are recognizable, spell easily and pronounce as spelled. I have not ever heard any objections from the five !
I remember that you use your middle name. I have another friend who goes by "Anne" who has the first name of Ruth...her husband goes by Alan and his first name is Gary! So, I have two couples in my life who are Anne and Alan and both sets don't use their first names!! Your twins live in Columbus, GA....she went to Journalism school with me while he was getting his MBA.
WE lived in a Columbus GA suburb when Alan was at Fort Benning, in about 1954. Small world things - again!
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