Sunday
Jan272008
What's in a name
Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 11:01PM
Names are funny old things, and not just in the sense of the Billy Connolly ditty I stole the name of this post from. We all have them (names that is, not Billy Connolly) and all take them for granted. As a kid I remember that I would ponder whether it would be better to have a cool name rather than an ordinary one, and then later as I got older what would a nice second name be, if I were going to change it when I got married. These ponderings are just that, simple musings about the future.
You see names are actually pretty important. They allow us to define ourselves and link us to our family. They can provide a sense of identity and history that can be really hard to escape from. Hell when people want a new start, or want to distance themselves from their family they often change their names. Names have been used in the past to define what your job or role. Names like Butcher and Taylor were used by people who carried out those jobs (aka Jones the steam from Ivor the Engine). In the Celtic regions names were used to signify who was your sire (MacLeod meant son of Ugly - but you get the idea). In a lot of ways names are who we are, and when people were disowned a lot of the time they would loose the right to use that name.
So back to there here and now - there may come a time when you meet someone and decide that you are going to get married, and then the name question comes up again - will you or won't you change it. This is not something that is specific to being female, I have known guys that have changed their name after they got hitched as well. Suddenly when it comes time to think about the name change, now suddenly it becomes more real - do you really want to be known as something else when you have spent x number of years being known as one thing. After all our name is something that we use to define who we are. Especially when it has been yours for all of your life.
When it came time for me to change my name I thought I would be fine with it- if for no other reason that it would be easier for other people to spell and it would be the end of the Highlander quotes from people (really there are only so many times that you can hear quotes about there being only 1). I had spent 25 years spelling out my surname to everyone who needed to write it down, and I was kinda sick of doing it. Part of the annoyance came from the fact that, no matter what I said, or how I said it; they would write down something different. I tried pretty much everything including spelling out each letter as it were some kind of code (M for mother, a for apple) and still they got it wrong. Despite all of this I felt a little separation anxiety about the whole change of name business and decided that rather than getting rid of my old name I would just add in my new surname and keep my old one as a middle name.
So anyway, all went well and I changed my name thinking that it would be nice to have a name that I would not need to spell out to everyone - I mean while MacLeod was not the easiest name for folks to spell (based on past experience) how hard could Lally be. I mean there are only 5 letters in it and three of them are L!
Guess what - it turns out that I was wrong - no one can spell Lally either - damn it!. I am still spending all my time spelling my surname out to people who seem determined to write down something that bears no resemblance to the words I am saying. This weekend was no exception - while trying to arrange an appointment it took us 3 attempts to get someone to write down our name correctly. We ended up discussing this in the car later on in the day and Rob said that this had always been an issue - folks just can't spell it. That got us both to thinking was there a way that we could make it easier for folks to get it - other than us bellowing it's Lally, L-A-L-L-Y you diddy.
Eventually we came up with a work around - there is a site that produces mini card call moo. Mini cards are like business cards but about half the size. You can order a box of 100 for £10 design the image you want on them and then add any text you want. If you have any images you want to put on - then they can be uploaded and used, or you can use images that they have on the site to customize the cards, and, if you really cannot be bothered you can just ask them to send you a pack of mixed designs. So now we have both ordered some of these and when someone asks me my name I can just give them one. Hell it has to be easier than the spelling process just now. Now I just need to ponder how to get it to work on the phone.
You see names are actually pretty important. They allow us to define ourselves and link us to our family. They can provide a sense of identity and history that can be really hard to escape from. Hell when people want a new start, or want to distance themselves from their family they often change their names. Names have been used in the past to define what your job or role. Names like Butcher and Taylor were used by people who carried out those jobs (aka Jones the steam from Ivor the Engine). In the Celtic regions names were used to signify who was your sire (MacLeod meant son of Ugly - but you get the idea). In a lot of ways names are who we are, and when people were disowned a lot of the time they would loose the right to use that name.
So back to there here and now - there may come a time when you meet someone and decide that you are going to get married, and then the name question comes up again - will you or won't you change it. This is not something that is specific to being female, I have known guys that have changed their name after they got hitched as well. Suddenly when it comes time to think about the name change, now suddenly it becomes more real - do you really want to be known as something else when you have spent x number of years being known as one thing. After all our name is something that we use to define who we are. Especially when it has been yours for all of your life.
When it came time for me to change my name I thought I would be fine with it- if for no other reason that it would be easier for other people to spell and it would be the end of the Highlander quotes from people (really there are only so many times that you can hear quotes about there being only 1). I had spent 25 years spelling out my surname to everyone who needed to write it down, and I was kinda sick of doing it. Part of the annoyance came from the fact that, no matter what I said, or how I said it; they would write down something different. I tried pretty much everything including spelling out each letter as it were some kind of code (M for mother, a for apple) and still they got it wrong. Despite all of this I felt a little separation anxiety about the whole change of name business and decided that rather than getting rid of my old name I would just add in my new surname and keep my old one as a middle name.
So anyway, all went well and I changed my name thinking that it would be nice to have a name that I would not need to spell out to everyone - I mean while MacLeod was not the easiest name for folks to spell (based on past experience) how hard could Lally be. I mean there are only 5 letters in it and three of them are L!
Guess what - it turns out that I was wrong - no one can spell Lally either - damn it!. I am still spending all my time spelling my surname out to people who seem determined to write down something that bears no resemblance to the words I am saying. This weekend was no exception - while trying to arrange an appointment it took us 3 attempts to get someone to write down our name correctly. We ended up discussing this in the car later on in the day and Rob said that this had always been an issue - folks just can't spell it. That got us both to thinking was there a way that we could make it easier for folks to get it - other than us bellowing it's Lally, L-A-L-L-Y you diddy.
Eventually we came up with a work around - there is a site that produces mini card call moo. Mini cards are like business cards but about half the size. You can order a box of 100 for £10 design the image you want on them and then add any text you want. If you have any images you want to put on - then they can be uploaded and used, or you can use images that they have on the site to customize the cards, and, if you really cannot be bothered you can just ask them to send you a pack of mixed designs. So now we have both ordered some of these and when someone asks me my name I can just give them one. Hell it has to be easier than the spelling process just now. Now I just need to ponder how to get it to work on the phone.
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