Tuesday 5 May 2015

I find names

fascinating.  So, yes I was interested to see what the latest royal baby was called - and why.
      "They could call the baby anything they liked," someone said to me.
No, they could not. Whatever her parents chose it would need to be "sensible". 
I doubt that a name like Plectrude, Sigga, or Wolfeva would have been considered appropriate. Yes, those are names once given to girls - along with names like Bebba, Eald, and Swidbwert. They sound strange to us now.
I know someone who named her daughter "Maud". The child hates her name with a passion and her second name, "Phyllis" is - in the child's eyes - no better. She was named after her grandmothers.  Even the initials "MP" cause the child distress. Her parents keep telling her she will grow out of hating her names. She plans to change them as soon as she is legally able to do so - and I have no doubt she will. At school she insists on being known as something entirely different.
The Whirlwind does not mind her name. It is a combination of the names of her parents but looks like a feminine version of a masculine name. She has never met anyone else with her name but an online search showed her that a number of other people do share her name. It is, according to her, "quite sensible".
I wonder whether people are more inclined to give girls an unusual name. Our former neighbours named their daughter "Monet". I had always thought of Monet as a surname - the name of a painter. Monet is in her mid-teens now. She is a lovely girl and her name doesn't seem to have caused her any bother.
I always feel concerned when people say they don't like their names. Names are intensely personal things. In many ways they define who we are. Our parents wield immense power when they name us. 
"Charlotte Elizabeth Diana" has a lot to live up to but they are what the Whirlwind will call "sensible" names. I think she will cope with the responsibility of caring for them.

1 comment:

jeanfromcornwall said...

I was pleased to see they are honouring her grandfather with the feminine version of Charles.
Funny things, names. I was named after my mother's younger sister, who died as a child. I was born on what was her birthday, so there was no choice really, and for years I never really felt I owned my name - just borrowing it from the little girl who couldn't use it.