fudge

Thursday 21 April 2011

What's In A Name?

The mention of Matt the Gnat in an earlier post got me to thinking about names.

The importance we place on them, the assumptions we make about them and the influence they have on our lives.

I was born Roberts, a name I wasn't to use for long as my parents divorced when I was very young.

My sister (I have 3) was called Julia, she reverted to the name Roberts only a couple of years before the advent of Pretty Woman. That's a hell of a name to try and live up to and frankly, she didn't waste too much time trying.

My Mother remarried fairly swiftly and my surname became Shears.

It was the BANE of my life!!! Not only did it seem impossible for many to spell (I've been called Smears, Steers and even on one memorable occasion ARREARS!!!) but, it was also ammunition!

I was brought up in a small village near the sea, not much going on and we took our fun where we could find it. One particular woman (we called HER Smelly Nelly) used to think it oh, soooo amusing, when she saw my sister and I together to refer to us as a 'pair of shears'.



Another sister was in a serious relationship for a while, all seemed to be jogging along quite nicely when suddenly, after a proposal of marriage, she broke it off.

The reason? 'Well 'she said, 'I gave it some serious thought and decided, there was no way I was spending the rest of my life being called Claire Dwyer'!!

You have to wonder at some parents though, do they not think before deciding on a name? Or do they have an evil chuckle to themselves as they sign away their offspring's future happiness in a stroke of a pen?

My ex worked with a man called Christopher, shortened as it often is to Chris. In itself, that wasn't a problem but when it was linked to the surname Peacock, well, that's just plain mean!

hey Chris

I worked for a while with a girl called Carrie. A lovely girl, very unassuming and pleasant.

One day Carrie came into the office and announced that she had decided to double barrel her first name with her middle name and so she became Carrie-Ann.

Nobody really gave it a great deal of thought at first but, all became clear when she got married a few months later.

Her husband to be had the surname HISCOCK!!! (now that's not included in the marriage vows!)

I haven't saddled my offspring with strange, weird or embarrassing names but at the same time, I didn't really give much thought to their initials.

Thus Master Macs initials are JAM and Miss Mac is LGM! They don't seem to hate me for it at the moment but we are reaching the teen years so no doubt I have provided them with some fodder for the future.


Possibly my favourite Name of all belongs to ex lax's (my ex husband) ex who, when she married decided to double barrel her name as many do and so she went from being Miss D White to Mrs D White-Cummings -

For REALZ!!

8 comments:

I'm So Fancy said...

howling! Chris Peacock! Argh. Thanks for coming by. I'll see what I can do...stick around. x

Being Me said...

Every time I come to your blog I answer it (in my head), "No. No they DON'T eat enough fudge."

Anywho, am giggling immaturely at this. I think Claire Dwyer would've got off pretty lightly compared to those other examples you've given. Poor Carrie(-Anne).

Catherine said...

Love this SaraH Mac! I'm the reverse- I got married ONLY so I could change my last name. It was...Dyke. Yup, you can't make that stuff up. In fact, I arrived at the reception, grinned, and said, "I'm not a Dyke anymore!"

p.s. I do love my husband, though!

Anonymous said...

I once knew a family whose surname was Pisspot. I can't make stuff like that up!

Janelle said...

Names are so amusing to ponder. The girl you called Smelly Nelly - her first name didn't happen to be Janelle did it? I was called Smelly Nelly at school! Hated it....

MultipleMum said...

Poor crispy cock! And Carrie. She really should have kept her maiden name. Aren't people funny? We had lots of fun naming our children - the things we *could* have called them. Luckily for them we couldn't keep a straight face so we opted for straight names instead! Thanks for joining the Weekend Rewind. I am late but better that than a no-show, right? x

Clarabel said...

That got me chuckling. really glad I found
your blog on Rewind, it's one of the funniest I've come across.

Reminds me of my friend who suddenly changed her daughters name from Sarah May to Sarah Louise when it was pointed out to her maybe not the best choice when her surname is Swallow!!

Also have a friend called Barry Stead, but he's always been Baz for short...some parents just don't think :)

Sarah said...

Oooh, why haven't I replied to these comments?? Sure I did!!

Hmm!

Well, thank you ALL and no Janelle - our smelly nelly was a middle age lady (and SHE started it) Bloody kid can be horrible cant they?

I used to get called the jolly green giant after the character in the sweetcorn add because I was tall and our school uniform was green!

Dr Bron - tell me you did!!!! :))

Ha ha Clarabel - Baz Stead?? Noooo :)