Do you like your name?\u00a0 Our pastor asked this question a few weeks ago.\u00a0 This prompted some discussion and reflection about the names in our family.<\/p>\n
I did not realize that my name was unusual until I was in elementary school.\u00a0 My mother, Ethel, was the only one in the family whose name was not \u201ca little different.\u201d\u00a0 Dad was Rankin as was his maternal grandfather.\u00a0 My brother was Carroll, which was often used for boys in my Dad\u2019s family.\u00a0 I often heard the explanation, \u201cThat is spelled with two r\u2019s and two l\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 I did not realize until I was older that was to differentiate from the female spelling, Carol.\u00a0 My sister was Vaudine.\u00a0 I have no idea how my parents came up with that one.\u00a0 One would think that when I surprised them later that they would have chosen something ordinary. I was told that my uncle Charles believed that he would never have a little girl and suggested the name.\u00a0 I never verified this.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter. \u00a0\u00a0My name was just who I was, and that was O.K.<\/p>\n
My uncle did eventually have a daughter.\u00a0 Her name was Theresa Lu.\u00a0 I thought it was a beautiful name.\u00a0 There were a few times when I wished that I could change names with her.\u00a0 By that time, I had realized that my name called for explanations.\u00a0 When I told an adult my name, the inevitable question was, \u201cHow do you spell that?\u201d\u00a0 The question when someone saw it written was, \u201cHow do you pronounce that.\u201d\u00a0 I have grown accustomed to saying, \u201cI will spell that for you,\u201d or \u201cthat is a c, not an e.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I was in high school, I was in the band.\u00a0 I was surprised to meet another Charlcy.\u00a0 However, she spelled her name Charlsie.\u00a0 This was a more logical spelling.<\/p>\n
The spelling of my name has been \u201ccorrected\u201d to Charley more times than I can count.\u00a0 Just this week I got some junk mail addressed to Mr. Charley Standifer.\u00a0 The ultimate correction came when a zealous clerk in Cameron County changed my Texas voter registration card to Charles and did a sex change.\u00a0 I was more than a little upset about that one and went in person to get it straightened out.<\/p>\n
The Pioneer Man has never liked his first name which is Floyd.\u00a0 He was always called Kenneth by his family.\u00a0 Through the years, our friends shortened it to Ken, and I eventually did likewise.<\/p>\n
When I asked him why he didn\u2019t like Floyd, he gave a profound answer, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 After some thought, he said, \u201cProbably it is because the only time I ever heard it was when Mother said, Floyd Kenneth.\u00a0 That meant I was in big, big trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost got him in big trouble because of his first name.\u00a0 When he was serving his mandatory time for Uncle Sam at Fort Gordon, Georgia, his unit was on alert one weekend.\u00a0 He went to wash our car and told me to call him immediately if he got a phone call.<\/p>\n
He got a call. He heard the phone ring and came bounding up the stairs to our garage apartment just in time to hear me tell the caller, \u201cThere is no Floyd here.\u201d\u00a0 Fortunately, he yanked the phone from me and answered before the caller hung up.<\/p>\n
Two of my male cousins were also called by their middle names.\u00a0 Neither liked their middle name.\u00a0 The Army practice of using first names allowed them to begin using their first names.\u00a0 Old habits die hard, and it was probably twenty or thirty years before all of the family finally began calling them by their first names.<\/p>\n
When I asked my children if they liked their names, I got puzzled pauses before they answered.\u00a0 I had the feeling that they were thinking their mom was getting senile.\u00a0 Fortunately, they have no problems with their names as there is nothing they can do about it at this point in time.<\/p>\n
I long ago learned to accept and like the uniqueness of my name.\u00a0 Just as when I was a child, it is my identity.\u00a0 It is who I am.\u00a0 I believe that it is necessary that we accept and love ourselves.\u00a0 Our name is part of the package. \u00a0It is the first step in loving others as we love ourselves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you like your name? Our pastor asked this question a few weeks ago. This prompted some discussion and reflection about the names in our family. I did not realize that my name was unusual until I was in elementary school. My mother, Ethel, was the only one in the family whose name was not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[148,146,147,144,145],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-things","tag-accepting-an-unusual-name","tag-accepting-your-name","tag-disliking-your-name","tag-names","tag-unusual-names"],"yoast_head":"\n