*A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

If you're a parent, then you've gone through the process of what to name your sons and/or daughters. Some of you may have gone to family names, a baby name book, names from your ancestral home, or names common to a favorite country.  However, you came up with your children's names, it's their's for life...good or bad.

I'm not really sure how my parents came up with my given name.  Even though I didn't know any other girls with my first name until I got into high school, I've always thought my name was uninteresting and not very feminine. I have often wished that my parents had named me my older sister's name, Karen, or the name that my Grandpa Reid always thought is was, Colleen.  The only thing I know about why I was named what I was is that the name fit my father's strict rules regarding the naming of children.

Those rules were:

1.   It had to be short enough to go with my 11 letter, 3 syllable maiden name.
2.  When you heard it, you had to know if it was a boy or a girl and how to spell it
3.   When you saw it written, you could easily pronounce it.
4.  Girls did not need middle names because when they married their maiden name became their middle name.

My father would probably have plenty to say about some of the current trends in children's names.  He wouldn't like the use of surnames for first names, especially when some surnames, like Jordan, are interchangeable between the genders.  He'd have plenty to say about the spelling "Emmaleigh" for "Emily", or my son's name, which has to be spelled all the time and is mispronounced frequently. He would want to know why we gave him a first name that has to be spelled all the time when he also has a last name that has to be spelled all the time. 

I always felt short changed because I had no middle initial prior to getting married. "C.C" looked redundant and weird to me.  I remember that as I got older, if I had to initial something, I wrote "C.L.C.". I've gotten used to my name, but wonder if it really fits me.  Would I be a better Colleen, Carol, Cathy or a Karen?

What do you think?  Do I look like a Colleen, Claire, Cathy, Carol or Karen?

I do have to say that I now like my initials when written with my last name.  It's easy to write and I like the way it looks when I sign my watercolor paintings.  So that's one good thing....