A rose by any other name……………………….

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a popular reference to William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house of Montague, that is, that he is named “Montague.

Having lived with an unusual name and being interested in family and genealogy research, I have always had an interest in names, especially unusual names. So many times I have wished that I had a name like Mary Jones! It is amazing the different pronunciations that people can come up with for my name. I especially have to pay close attention when waiting for an appointment to see how they will pronounce my name. This sometimes means that I wait to see if any one else gets up or wait for them to try saying it again! I have been called LaRue, LaRee, Larry, and the every popular Lorraine! And having a long German name for the second half doesn’t help the process either!

One of my favorite stories for my name mispronunciation was a regular customer that got it in his head that my name was Lorraine. I just answered to that for quite a spell, but then one day, I said to him, you know my name is LaRae, not Lorraine, no N. Well, I thought he understood me, but from that time forward, guess what he called me!? Yep, No N. Might have been better just to let it go, ya think?

So in the family tree, some of the more unusual names are Agrippa, Cletus, Halaron, Thrasilla and my personal favorite, Twinkle Claramae. I don’t even have a comment for that last one but it makes me smile when ever I see it, so good job to the namer of that child!

I grew up with a young man named Eldean, which I didn’t find unusual at the time, but after living all these years and never meeting another Eldean or even hearing of any one else by that name, I guess that qualifies for unique! To me that name sounds like an alias for a super hero, hm….not sure why, as I have never seen the gentleman in question changing clothes in a phone booth, so my apologies for my flight of fancy there! But best keep on eye on him anyway.

Nicknames and shorteners are another issue entirely. Sister Patricia goes by Patti, but other Patricias are called Pat or Trish or Tricia so you have lots of options there. So many of the kids that I grew up with had nicknames, indeed some I’m not even sure what their actual names were. I remember Smokey and Sparrow and Tex for starters, Oh and PeeWee and Pedro, gosh there were a lot! LOL

I am sure you all have your favorite “Odd” names, so be sure to share!

We are mostly practicing our social distancing here in Tupelo. Spending lots of time at home working in the yard. Its hard to stay indoors and do anything when the weather is so nice. So far the violent storms have steered clear, but we continue to be blessed with too much rain. Gas prices are very nice, I think 1.40 was the latest price, makes a person want to take a road trip! I wonder how long it will take to go back up once all the travel restrictions are lifted. Not long would be my guess!

Keep safe everyone and keep smiling!