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What's in a name?
My children have somewhat unusual names. I decided many years ago, when having children was still just a vague notion of something I might like to do someday, that I would give those as yet imaginary children unique names. I was not going to name them anything popular so that they were not forever doomed to be designated by a last initial. Any name that appeared on a recent top 100 list would be automatically ruled out. Unfortunately, sometime between when I made this resolution and when I actually needed to choose names for my children, it became trendy to give a kid an “interesting” name. This complicated things for me. Even if I did choose a unique name that I liked, it would look like I was, in a way, going with what was popular.
Of course there are some who would say I give the whole matter entirely too much thought.
I suffer similarly over the names of my characters. While the name you give a fictional person doesn’t have nearly the same weight as a name for your offspring, I create new characters much more frequently than I become pregnant. Every time I need a character name, I have to think about all the associations I have had with that name, knowing the whole time that no one else will have the same associations, but feeling that mine are still too important to ignore. I have tried to make light of my struggles by mocking my own choices within the books. My first heroine, Raina Lane, was teased that her name sounded like a phone ringing. My second was named Hazel Brown.
Of course the agony of naming the characters is nothing to the chore of assigning a title.
My third book is a long way from being completed and already I am concerned that I have no title. Concerned, but not terribly worried… yet. I have had a few ideas that just don’t seem quite right. I am hopeful that by the time the story is finished, an appropriate name will come to me. Just like some parents prefer to see what a baby looks like before sticking to a name.
It's always something...
I remember my mother saying this whenever one of us came to her with a problem. I'm beginning to understand more fully what she meant by it.
My children have somewhat unusual names. I decided many years ago, when having children was still just a vague notion of something I might like to do someday, that I would give those as yet imaginary children unique names. I was not going to name them anything popular so that they were not forever doomed to be designated by a last initial. Any name that appeared on a recent top 100 list would be automatically ruled out. Unfortunately, sometime between when I made this resolution and when I actually needed to choose names for my children, it became trendy to give a kid an “interesting” name. This complicated things for me. Even if I did choose a unique name that I liked, it would look like I was, in a way, going with what was popular.
Of course there are some who would say I give the whole matter entirely too much thought.
I suffer similarly over the names of my characters. While the name you give a fictional person doesn’t have nearly the same weight as a name for your offspring, I create new characters much more frequently than I become pregnant. Every time I need a character name, I have to think about all the associations I have had with that name, knowing the whole time that no one else will have the same associations, but feeling that mine are still too important to ignore. I have tried to make light of my struggles by mocking my own choices within the books. My first heroine, Raina Lane, was teased that her name sounded like a phone ringing. My second was named Hazel Brown.
Of course the agony of naming the characters is nothing to the chore of assigning a title.
My third book is a long way from being completed and already I am concerned that I have no title. Concerned, but not terribly worried… yet. I have had a few ideas that just don’t seem quite right. I am hopeful that by the time the story is finished, an appropriate name will come to me. Just like some parents prefer to see what a baby looks like before sticking to a name.
It's always something...
I remember my mother saying this whenever one of us came to her with a problem. I'm beginning to understand more fully what she meant by it.
Comments
I copied the above from a post I made on Amazon. It seems a little random here, but I thought it was relevant because of the part about naming my children. I wondered if anyone else has kids with unique names and if it causes any weird looks.
My twin boys have somewhat unique names. They are family & heritage names. The first born is name Traver pronounced tray-ver. This is my husband's middle name & his mother's maiden name. He & his grandfather were very close & I loved it from the time I met him. My second born is Enzo. I am first generation American born. My entire family immigrated from Sicily in the 60's. I wanted one of the boys to have an Italian name due to the fact that I don't know if I will be blessed with any more children. Both boys have some part of their father's name in their name & both middle names are their grandfather's name. So Traver William & Enzo Michael are my unique though very meaningful names for my boys.
Both my husband and I have "E" and "C" initials so we wanted to keep with the theme. Somewhat cheesy, but not horribly so. :)
We're naming our daughter Claire Elizabeth. Claire is quickly gaining in popularity, up from about 88 to 64 based on the Social Security site for this year. I chose it for many reasons, but I love that it means "smart" or "brilliant". Hey - a mom-to-be can home, right!?
Elizabeth is a family name, as well as the name of my best friend who is just sweet as pie.
So, not too unusual, but definitely with meaning. :)
My daughter has a French name which no one can spell. No one can pronounce. She loves her name, and everyone tells me how lovely it is. But it is constantly butchered in both pronunciation and spelling. Nevertheless, she would have no other. As a preschooler, and until age 7, she went by the name "Puff". That way, all her friends could remember and say her name. And she could write her name at an early age, an important milestone of pride for kids. The nickname was so catchy, that I would meet people all over town who knew me as "Puff's mom". In fact, to this day (my daughter is almost 16 yrs. old) I meet people who remember "Puff" whom I had never met before. Puff was a great choice for a young childs name! Everyone remembered her because of her name. I can't tell you the number of people who told me that they had a poodle with her name. But all the better, because they never forgot her. Now people go out of their way to avoid saying her real name: they don't want to get it wrong, so they by-pass saying it. Native French people look askance when I say my daughters name, then correct me, because even I, speaking no French, misprounce my own daughter's name!!!
My daughter’s name is actually Polish, but I’m not Polish so I don’t pronounce it that way and I don’t think I’d want to be corrected. Some names have different pronunciations, like Andrea or Megan. I remember way back when I was in college, I was in a class with a TA named Megan, pronounced Mee-gan. The prof always said it with a short e and she would correct him every time. By the end of the semester she was giving him dirty looks and the whole class was yelling out corrections. I think even if there is more than one acceptable pronunciation, you should try to use the one preferred by the owner of the moniker.
I’ve known those who tried very hard to select a name with a definition that they liked. This is great, but it’s especially good (I think) if you can use a name with personal meaning, like in a previous comment. I have a boy and a girl and their middle names are my parents’ first names.
Check out those unusual names with the Baby Name Wizard. Start typing in a name and see how popular it is compared to other similar names and over time. It's fun to play with even if you're not looking for a name!
Oh yeah, I mentioned something about weird looks. Many times now, when I introduce my kids to new people, I’ve gotten this look. It’s a look that seems to say that the other person thinks I’m either insane or just a little bit of a moron for choosing these names but he or she is way too polite to say so. Then I get some sort of innocuous comment like, “That’s unusual,” or “How do you spell that?” I never know if I should feel badly for the person trying not to hurt my feelings or for myself for whatever it is he didn’t say.
That baby name wizard is fun. Not that I need another way to waste time.
It was funny to happen on this post because I just blogged about it:http://tellme.typepad.com/tellme/2008/08/whats-in-a-name-whatever-you-put-there.html Michele