The Beauty of Names

I love names. English names, Native American names, foreign names, dog names, horse names, nature names.....

My mom has 5 or 6 baby name books that I have about worn out reading. Pretty much all the online name sites have added me as a regular guest. I like looking up names in the Bible, the dictionary, and in books. I like making up my own. I especially like unusual names! They are my favorite because, well… they’re unusual.

I met someone the other day that said she used to hate her name. She has a very unusual and unique name, so most people have difficulty remembering it and I imagine that when she was younger, other kids teased her about it.

I, on the other hand, think it is a beautiful name.

However, it did get me to thinking: I hardly know anyone who really likes their name. When you get down to it, practically everyone I know wishes that they had a different name.

I used to have a friend, God rest her soul, who actually gave herself a different name, not because she hated her name, but because she felt that her parents had not put a lot of thought into her name and it made her feel stupid. So she carefully chose a new name for herself.

She is the only person that I could understand why she would want a different name, and she is the only person I know that changed it.

Other people who have admitted to me that they don’t like their name, baffle me. All of them have a beautiful name that fits them perfectly in one way or another, why do they not like it?

I don’t know if it was the way I was raised, or if it is just my personality, but I have always liked my name. Yes, sometimes I would find a name that I thought was beautiful, but I didn’t want it. I would just give it to one of my imaginary characters. HA! If you want to meet someone with a REAL name crisis, you should meet at least ONE of my imaginary characters. I can guarantee that all of them have had 3 different names at the very least!

Anyway….rabbit trail….

I have never disliked my name….or my nicknames for that matter. Okay, well, I take that back. There was one nick name that I did not like: Katie.

I had a friend named Katie and that was her name. Not mine. Besides that, ‘Katie’ was a cute candy-like name. Kathryn was a confident, professional, serious name. I liked confident, professional, and serious. People took me more seriously.

But then my grandmother started calling me "Katie-Jay" so.....yeah....it fit and I could not refuse it.