Dale Carnegie once wrote: “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” He went on to say: “Using a person’s name is crucial, especially when meeting those we don’t see very often. Respect and acceptance stem from simple acts such as remembering a person’s name and using it whenever appropriate.”
I have always been fascinated by names. When, as a very young person, I discovered a few pages of names in the back of my parents’ dictionary, I poured over it. Those pages were soon tattered.
I remember taking out an origin of names book from my elementary school library. Nicknames and derivatives obsessed me. I recall two which I’ve never been able to find again: Stenie as a nickname for Stephan; and Hodge as a nickname for Roger.
While doing my grammar homework, I would always change the names in the exercises. Little Jimmy (was/were) riding his bicycle became Little Ulrich was riding his bicycle. Nancy (wear/wore) a green coat morphed into Cassandra wore a green coat (but she’d have looked better in red). My fifth grade teacher (I think it was fifth grade) finally told me to stop changing the names and editorializing. It was a sign!
In high school, I purchased my first baby name book. My very own book, filled with nothing but names. Such riches! Unfortunately, it was stolen when someone broke into my car. I was more upset about losing that book than I was about the stolen aquarium or broken window.
Since then, I’ve accumulated quite a collection.
I had one other book, by Bruce Lansky, but X-Chromo took it to a friend’s house for an overnight (I don’t know why they needed a baby name book) and that was the last I ever saw of it. Yes, I have two copies of Beyond Jennifer and Jason. It’s been updated. (Plus the original was misplaced for a long while).
When I was pregnant for Y-Chromo, TV Stevie and I looked at a lot of baby name books. One was The Worst Baby Name Book Ever. “Woody: the past tense of Willy.” Clever.
Now we have the Internet. I love the US Government’s Social Security site. One can find the top names given in any decade. Even better, one can narrow the search by state. So if you have a heroine born in the mid-1970’s in Kentucky, you can go to this website and find the top 100 names in the 1970s in Kentucky. It’s a wonderful resource.
I also “collect” names. I once worked with a Slade Walter. People, upon meeting him or hearing of him would remark on what a great name he had. I’m trying to work that name into a story. Other wonderful names I’ve encountered in recent years include: Nick Kitson, Eric Jedziniak, Eric Zubricki. I’ll read a name in the paper and write it down for future use.
Names are one of the first things I brainstorm when starting a new book.
When I was a child, I hated my first name. Very few people of my generation had it. And people always asked me what it was short for. It became an “in” name in the 1980s. Now every Tom, Dick and Harry . . .
Because of my name issues (it’s spelled this way, not that)–issues my husband also faced–when we chose names for our children, we chose names that didn’t have alternate spellings, names found on tooth brushes in the drug store and mini license plates at thru-way rest stop gift stores, and names they could use in a global society.
Do you have any name pet peeves?
