What's in a Name? Kin, Labels, Etymology and More!

The seemingly simple topic of names is actually chock full of complexities that nobody fully understands. There are so many layers and levels to it, that it boggles the mind. Every one of those areas has differing schools of thought, too, and all cultures are different. When you're talking about something so personal as a name, people can't even agree on whether or not it is personal. For instance, there are those who think it's nothing but a label, and we should do without labels entirely. I have to say, this would be a very confusing world if we had to say, "Hey you!" in order to get someone's attention. The artist-formerly-known-as-Prince-and-was-subsequently-known-as-Prince-anyway is probably the best illustration of what happens when someone doesn't have a name (or label if you will). Most of us would agree that we prefer to have a name rather than a serial number, and find even social security (US) or social insurance (Canada) numbers to be dehumanizing. Besides, names are easier to say. Usually.

So, let's all pretend to agree that we need names. On to the next step. You have a kid, you stick a name on it, you register the birth and name with the government - I assume that all depends on what country you live in, too, but I'm going with what I know. In Canada you can't even leave the hospital without register a name for your kid, and in the US you used to be able to wait a while before settling on a name if my understanding of the system is correct. I don't personally understand that approach, but at the same time I'm also reading the Game of Thrones books (no I have not seen the TV series - I'm debating whether or not I even want to - it is TV after all), and there are customs in there where people don't name their kids until they're about two years old because it's considered unlucky and too many kids die before that age. Hmmm. I'd think you'd want a name just in case they do die, so there's something to stick on a headstone, but I suppose the idea is to not get too attached to them. Good luck with that.

Now anyone I've ever known who has had a kid, myself included, has sweated the choices. Most of us realize that it's a bad idea to name your kid something they're going to be picked on for, but then there are those who don't want their kid to be like everyone else. Being one of the ones who was picked on, I would advise prospective parents to think twice about weird names. In fact, if you have a weird last name, it might even be time to bite the bullet and make some legal alterations to it, so future generations don't grimace whenever they speak it aloud, or get pissy when they constantly have to correct people who misspell it. My last name is the perfect example of that. Everyone assumes there's an R in it. There is not, and the last time it had an R in it was probably centuries ago. Just because there's another group of people out there who chose to leave the R in their name, does not make it true of my own family. In my case I no longer have to worry about spreading my name about. My daughter doesn't share it, and I'm beyond the point of having more children.

On the flipside there are those who have had family pride instilled in them, so that their name makes them stand a little straighter and throw their shoulders back. More power to ya. In my case I had some decent relatives, and then there were the ones with the yellow buck teeth - first cousins who tried to get me into bed. Yes, I know. Ick. Both the teeth and the cousin part. First cousins might be legal in some places, but I wasn't going there voluntarily. Those teeth were a good reminder of why first cousins are a bad idea, in fact. Not only inbreeding, but inbreeding with visible flaws.

So at one point I seriously considered legally changing my last name. I can't remember what it was that caught my attention, but at that time I realized something. My name would be what I would make of it. After all, it's not a very common last name, so there are no massively famous people (for their celebrity or for their infamy) that I had to live in the shadow of, or overcome their reputation. I'm not a Lincoln or a Sheen, or even a Smith, which is so common no one would assume any relationship these days anyway. Not being in touch with any of my family members makes this easy as well. I will make my name what I want it to be, and so it doesn't matter at all what it meant in my home town. This apple fell very far from the whole orchard.

Beyond what's common, popular, known or there's a built-in reputation that comes with it, there's the meaning of the names themselves. Now, looking at my last name you would think it means land of sticks. It doesn't. It translates from another word altogether and means land beside the hill. Weird huh? Of course, last names are like that. First name are usually the big conundrum for new parents. Boy names, girl names and gender-neutral names. I like the latter idea. If I'd had another child, Alex would have been a seriously-considered option. My daughter ended up with a name that was so common she usually had several other girls in her class with the same name. It wasn't like that when I named her, or I'd have chosen something different. Something not weird, but not overly common either. Instead she got buried unwillingly in the popular.

Baby naming books or websites will always be needed. We want to know we're not naming our kid something that means 'pile of dung' or something. Kids are cruel, and if they discover this, your kid is doomed. Yes, doomed. That will stick with them in every possible permutation for the rest of their lives. I was briefly nicknamed Spike in junior high (an 80s hair thing). People remembered. People almost got punched for remembering, but they remembered. I was okay with it in grade 8 - not so much in high school and later years. If I were faced with naming a kid now, I'd also be doing a Google search on the name, including middle and last, varying what I entered. You just never know. Maybe you haven't heard the latest news about that serial killer in California, or the politician who just got caught doing the nasty with a chicken. With the internet now, kids will find out about those things. Sometimes people are bored and Google a person's name at random. It's not possible to completely avoid that kind of thing, but do your kid a favour and at least make an effort to do so.

Finally there's equality. Woman got sick and tired of losing their last names, for one thing. For another, when you have a career and have built up a reputation, changing your last name can do a lot of damage. There's no way to properly format a resume to state that at one place your name was one way, but then at another it was a different way. It might be alright if we all married once and stayed married. We just don't now. Or very rarely. Sure, you can use the antiquated "nee" with your former last name after it, but seriously? Let's be realistic about corporate life. Women who do that are looked at more than a little contemptuously. It tells everyone there that you gave up your identity for a man. If you're willing to do that, the assumption may be that you will not take your career as seriously as a man would. Then starts that whole, "Women don't belong in the workforce. They just can't be relied on to stick with it." They also tend to assume you will be taking time off to raise a family, and they will not make that same assumption with a husband. They don't have a clue what you and your partner have decided to do about a family. They simply assume, and it's not a career boost.

Beyond getting married and women not always changing their last names, or at least hyphenating them, babies come along to challenge your equality ideas yet again. After all, it's no longer written in stone that children automatically take their father's last name. Women are starting to say, "What? My last name isn't good enough? My family is less important than your family? I don't think so!" In fact, this isn't such a new phenomenon as we might generally think. Royal families intermarried - one country's prince to another country's princess, and that sort of thing. These high-level marriages did not completely subjugate the family names of the brides, simply because that would have been an insult to an entire country. If the idea behind the marriage was to bond two countries, that sort of insult would nullify any benefits achieved by the marriage. Even among the lesser peerage, especially when the woman's family was considered a station or two above the family of the man, women often retained their own titles of some sort. I'm foggy on specifics, but I remember seeing it on many occasions when I was doing research. Titles would be handed down to the children at any rate.

What I've been seeing as some of the latest trends are girls being given their mothers' last names, and boys getting their last name from their fathers, or even the reverse. Sometimes the couple each retain their own last names with no hyphenation, but the kids get the hyphenated name and the boys & girls have the same last names. Again, there's very old precedent in a way. Think of Nordic last names. The son of Odin was Odinson (like Thor Odinson). His daughter's would have been Odinsdotter or Odinsdatter. They're called patronymic names when they're named after the father, but there were matronymic names, too, apparently. Laws changed and in some cases this practice was forbidden, but then laws changed again so people could go back to doing it.

I guess in a world where English-language people (like myself) are so openly egocentric that they assume the world revolves around their own basic culture, there were many who got confused by the 'alternative' practices. Then again, there's a large portion of the world that places the family name first, and the given name second. So, in those countries the custom would be for me to be called Stickland Rain. I know that it's like that in China, as well as in Hungary (or was anyway). Certain Chinese celebrities have swapped their names back and forth, confusing the masses of movie-goers, but if those movie-goers are too lazy to learn about other cultures I feel no empathy for them. Having worked in payroll and human resources, it was my job to know this stuff. In one place we had a large number of Chinese employees who were permanent residents, and I needed to know which name was the family name. As far as I was concerned, I needed to be respectful of the differences.

This brings up other issues with regard to this topic, doesn't it? The whole thing about being an immigrant. See what I mean? A seemingly innocuous topic has turned into something fraught with meaning on every possible level. There are many who feel that if you come into a country then you should adopt your new country's ways. Sure, legally I can see that. You obey the laws already in place, because by crossing that border it's tacit agreement that you will abide by them. That does not mean your culture needs to be tossed out the door or disrespected. I know in Canada it's always a struggle to accommodate certain religious beliefs, particularly in employment situations where there's a uniform involved. When it comes to names, though, there are many who sneer at foreign names. I see it more in the US, but I see it in Canada as well. Racism is nowhere near dead, folks.

I have a friend whose last name is technically pronounced differently, but in high school he chose to anglicize it for ease of use. He refers back to the 'when in Rome' analogy. His family members were adamant that it should be pronounced the original way. I pronounce it the way he wants it pronounced, but my ex's family is from the same country and he was taken aback by the way I said it. My only response was, "If that's what he uses, that's what I'm calling him. It's his damn name."

In the end that's really what it should be as far as I'm concerned. My daughter is debating on changing her name. She does not like its popularity. She's considering a variety of options, and some of them I think she would later regret. However, it's her life, and I really don't blame her for not being happy with what she has. Maybe George R.R. Martin and his Game of Thrones are closer to the truth on this one, though we certainly need to be able to call our kids something other than, "Come here you little..." when they've drawn on the walls in Crayon for the umpteenth time. The thing is, do we even know what to call ourselves as time goes on? Do we pick a name that sounds cool later in life, but then realize ten years down the road that it wasn't exactly our best idea?

Thankfully it's not horrendously expensive to change your name these days. I think it's only about $170 in Canada, for a full, legal name change. Less than the price of a DIY divorce at any rate, and probably a lot less confusing. Having gone through umpteen dozen name changes myself - two marriages where I actually changed my last name, and the rest were from childhood and were not by my choice - I can tell you, it takes people a while to get used to the new name, yourself included. By the time I got married for the third time (and no, that one didn't stick either), I was really sick of changing my name. My ex didn't like it, but by then the most I was willing to concede was a hyphenation. We didn't last long enough for me to make the change, which at least saved me from having to change it back.

Would a rose still smell as sweet by any other name? You betcha. It would just have to hear it a few times before it would answer to it.