Day 57: A Rose is a Rose...

I just read that of 3000 British school teachers polled, 49% admitted to making assumptions about students based upon their first names. I was flummoxed to see the name Jack listed as a potential troublemaker. Okay, so yes, the J I refer to is Jack. Happy? I'm not! He's not a troublemaker! In fact, in the delivery room, when we announced that his name would be Jack, the obstetrician replied, "Jack? That sounds like a boy with dirty knees!" Exactly! And J did, in fact, win "The Dirtiest Knees Award" in day camp! But that doesn't make him a troublemaker, does it? What do those teachers know that we don't?

Someone recently told me a story -- possibly an urban myth -- about a girl named La-a. Now tell me, how would you pronounce that? Tough, right? It's Ladasha. You have to admit, that's pretty creative. I've also heard that Nevaeh is a popular name now. Heaven backwards. I think that's pretty.

My sister J (no, not Jackie, although from what I've been told about her troublesome teenage years perhaps that would have been more appropriate!) informs me that my name was up in the air for several weeks after my birth. Being the youngest of five, I guess my parents had just run out of steam. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that they also had to lie to my brother D about my sex in order to get him to come home from the neighbors to meet me for the first time. Apparently another little sister is not what he had in mind.

My sister tells me the horrifying story of the name my mom had in mind for me:

"...you were Miss X for two weeks until the hospital finally called Mom and said they HAD to have a name for the birth certificate. Mom really liked Cornelia Beatrice, the rest of us didn't like it at all and told her that we would be calling you Corned Beef. Dad liked the name Leslie, but Mom didn't because one of the twins [a cousin] was already a Leslie.

So they finally came up with Nancy, which I think is a very cute name -- yes, sort of old-fashioned for these days (as is John, Jean, Doug, and Anne) -- but for me it conjures up the image of a Pippi Longstocking. I've never known a Nancy that wasn't fun to be with!"

Sometimes I'm fun to be with.

So there you go. Mneme is not my sole sobriquet. Perhaps I should be signing these posts Miss X instead.