A Rose is Still a Rose

Curiously, these thoughts came to me after an afternoon nap, so I decided to jot them down. I'm hoping that the younger people in my family will appreciate the history and humor behind the process of how they each were named. It helps to have an "old person" like myself recall and commit to paper these memories before the stories are forever lost. I'm also hoping that this will spark a level of interest in my readers about their family names. I would bet there are many tales behind the names that were given to them, as well.

Names are chosen for many reasons: cultural, religious, family traditions, popularity of the current times or heroes of the day, or maybe because the sound just goes well with the surname...a flow, per se. Some names are even chosen to be passed down in remembrance of a loved one or friend. And some names, have no rhyme or reason, but that's perfectly okay, too.

Of course, a name doesn't determine a destiny in life, but it is something that "sticks" with us, just the same. Johnny Cash describes just such a "sticky" scenario in his song, "A Boy Named Sue." Hope you listen for the full message as you read along...

Nobody named a boy in my family Sue, but as for me, I was pretty sore about being named Shirley Elaine. It was such an "old-fashioned" name, and I got called Shirley Temple a thousand times when I was young. To make matters worse, my surname was Spooner, and I was often referred to as, "Forker." Go ahead and laugh. I wanted to be invisible...because even then, I was an introvert and shy...no chance of not "sticking out" with either of those names, though. (Why couldn't I just be called, Elaine???)

As I grew older, and learned about my name and family history, I developed a different point of view about my name. Taken from an excerpt from my story, "Aunts," is the following: "And lastly, there was Aunt Shirley. My father's only sister, my namesake. She passed away at age seventeen. I carry her with me every day of my life. I hope I've made her proud. She gave me her best (her name,) so I try to be the best because of her and because she can't live fully, I try to."

Having an odd name is something that my brother, "Leck" can also relate to. He was called Lick and Lex Luthor far too often. So, he now goes by his first name, Charles.

Why would anyone name their child Leck, you might ask? Charles Lescale was named after our uncle (our mother's brother,) Charles Lescale. As I recall in my story, "The Black & White World of 1938," this uncle was shot and killed by a crazy man, along with our grandfather. He died on his 23rd birthday.

But where did this unusual name derive from? Apparently, before the birth of our uncle in 1915, our grandfather had a painful bout with his appendix. The physician/surgeon in New Orleans who fixed that problem was named, Dr. Charles Lescale. My grandfather was mighty grateful for his services. (You can't make this stuff up, folks.)

I would later name my second son after my brother, too. But I only gave him the name of "Charles" and chose Marcus as his middle name because it was "Italian," and his father was half Italian. Marc's older brother, Michael David, was a "Jr." Mike's mother was Irish, so "Mike's" first son (and mine) was a "David."

Marc would have an Austen Marcus and David would have a David Caleb. I'm not quite sure why the Caleb choice, but it's a very good Bible name. I do remember that Austen's mother chose his name because of a very popular young, handsome character from her favorite soap opera back in 1995:

I also have a sneaking suspicion that my grandma on my mother's side chose my first daughter's name from her favorite soap opera (Guiding Light) from back in 1977, too. She always told me that "Christina" was her pick strictly because it was a Greek/Macedonian name like my daughter's father's heritage. (Okay, Grandma...whatever you say.) I had wanted to name her "Rachel Leah" from the tale of two Bible sisters. But we got Christina Rena, pronounced like Renee. I named her Rena after my sister's middle name. My Christina would later have a daughter that she named "Lea" Elise.

In my story, " Name for a Sister, Color TVs, Family Secrets, & The Beatles," I write:

"So, hopefully, now that I've painted a picture of my world, let me get to the part of how my sister got her name, because she had no name for almost a week after she got home from the hospital. By that time, my Aunt Sis and her husband had come to meet her, and the family Bible came out to look for names written in the middle of the Good Book under our "family history."

"Aunt 'Cile loved the name, "Kitty," because she had a friend named that and it was unique. Aunt Sis liked the name, "Rena" and for it to be spelled liked that, with a long a sound. (She spelled by sound and it became very funny to us over the years.) My mother and grandmother looked at the names of my mother's grandmothers...maternal was Eliza Almeda and paternal was Katie. My sister was finally dubbed, "Katherine Rena" and would be called Kitty."

I wanted my youngest daughter to be named Lauren Elizabeth. I loved how that sounded. And the Elizabeth part would be for my father's mother, Mary Elizabeth and my mother's grandmother, Eliza. My husband at the time, asked me to shorten her name to Lora Beth. I conceded. (My son, David would later give me my Jade Elizabeth...)

David would also give me another "Katie" and an "Anna Cathryn" and a "Kylie." Marc would have a "Cara Alyssa" (named after his teenage actress crush, Alyssa Milano. And a "Heaven."

Christina would have an "Andrew," named after my mother's father, also in the 1938 story. I would later have to tell her that his name had been an alias name and that his true identity was James. The story is explained in the story I wrote about my sister's name. Andrew is still a very good name, though.

Lora would have a son named "Lane," named after the character in the true movie, "8 Seconds" about a rodeo bull-rider. And a daughter named "Madelyn Brooke" because she just liked that name.

And we also have an Alaana (my niece), and Alaina, an Acen, & brand new, Emory...my greats!

I love all my roses! A full bouquet of them.