What’s In a Name?

I overheard a conversation not long ago in which a woman was complaining to her companion about her name. She said, “My mother had no imagination. My sisters and I…We are Peggy, Betty, and Mary. Now, how plain is that?” Perhaps her mother came from a long line of conformists, but I will have to say that the typical Southern mother has quite an array of monikers to choose from when naming her baby.

For instance, it is the Southern Mother’s duty (I mean choice) to create a clever combination from a multi-generational pedigree - the all important family name that has been handed down for the last 50 years. Sometimes she elects to use a family surname to provide a first name for some poor unsuspecting baby. Usually it’s the girl babies who are crowned with such glorious names as Tucker, Bennett, Claiborne or Carson. Some kids can really carry off a name like that…Others…well…Bless their hearts. They just get beat up on the play ground.

Depending on the mother’s goal for the child, she might name him or her to stand out in the kindergarten roll call (Vestavia Raquel or Thaddeus Sheridan). Or perhaps she wants her child’s name to blend in with all the other Little Leaguers (Bubba, Junior, Buddy, Sissy). Honestly…there are many Bubba’s on birth certificates all over this state!

Now, some mothers-to-be might take a page from Southern Literature and recall names such as Tennessee William’s “Blanche”, or Will Faulkner’s “Dewey Dell”, or the ever-popular Rhett, Ashley and Scarlett from Margarett Mitchell. Or how about Pat Conroy’s “Ledare” or Harper Lee’s “Scout”. (You see, Demi and Bruce were not the first to use that name.)

Of course we Southerners are always a sucker for the double named child. Martha Ann, John Ross, Betty Jo, John Mark, Carl Lee, Mary Sue, Joe Dan, Anna Claire , etc. Or perhaps the family name is so outdated but is required by generational pressure that the mother opts to use initials only. A.J., J.C., A.C., J.D., C.J., B.J. The world may never know that little B.J.’s real name is Bascomb Jedidiah.

Now a trip to your local nursing home will show you just how imaginative our foremothers actually were. Why, there is quite an assortment of one-of-kind names just waiting for the forward thinking mother to choose from. Orma Rue, Alden, Alabama Lee, Eulalia (rhymes with Australia), Ulysses, Jerusala, Percival, Flora Mae, Hazel Gwinnette, Horace, and Thelberta Louise. Just how original do you want to be in 2007?

You know I’m just a little bit sorry I wasn’t named after my two grandmothers as my mother had always threatened. I’m sure I would have been the only Reba Willette in the entire state of Tennessee.