“Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” to quote Dale Carnegie, whose 1936 self-help book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” is one of the best-sellers of all time.
Mom, my oracle of wisdom, told me that people who have the same name are often alike. Years ago, we belonged to a couple’s card club with three of the six young, men called Ken. One way those fellows were similar was when one of us wives raised our voice and said, “Ken,” to get a husband’s attention, we were always answered by the two that weren’t our spouse.
I’ve noticed I often can guess a person’s age by their first name–popularity of names changes every few years. When our granddaughter was in grade school, four other girls in her class shared her moniker but each was spelled differently.
Names also may have variations as a baby grows up. When little Billy, Donnie and Bobbie misbehaved, their mothers chastised William, Donald and Robert. The adult men are known as Bill, Don and Bob.
For a long time, I had a bias against any female named Marie. While I attended a country grade school, one of the ‘big girls’ was named Marie and she picked on me. When I started junior high in the village, a senior named Marie, who rode the same bus, often teased me. After I was married, it took a long time for me to develop a friendship with the wife of one of my husband’s buddies, a lovely woman named Marie.
Even machines have a prejudice against some names. When our son tried to register my new computer, the company refused to acknowledge my name. I assumed it was because of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 best-selling novel, “Lolita,” the story of a twelve-year-old nymphet. There are no similarities between that fictional girl and me; I even pronounce my name differently using a long I sound instead of a long E. Still, I had to dig up a high school nickname to be accepted.
What are your thoughts when you hear a person’s name for the first time?
My first response is I really don’t have a bad feeling about any name as you said that you do. Secondly, I note if a similar spelling might be pronounced differently than someone I know – case in point is your name, A woman at cards in Waunakee, spells her name like yours but it is pronounced Loleeta. I had a hard time getting used to that at first.
I’ve read that parents should give their children names that are rather “normal” but that was after I named my son Marc Jon rather than Mark John!!