Meaning of a Name

What is in a name? Juliet told Romeo, ‘What's in a name? that which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet’.  As we know Juliet wasn’t very smart.  What if a Rose were called a Thornbristle, Cactilestink, or Buttweed…would it be the flower of love, the flower that people use for Valentines Day, or the flowers most used in a wedding bouquet? Oh, honey thank you for these beautiful Buttweeds!  I'm not so sure. 

I love literature, but I detest Shakespeare.  I blame him for the reason I scored a very low B in English.  The teacher actually wrote on my exam paper (interpreting a Shakespeare poem), “you poor dear, you have no idea what Shakespeare is saying, no wonder you keep failing these tests”.  

 It might be important to say not only am I a very southern girl, I was into hip-hop during this stage in life, and I spoke a completely different language.

But the REAL point I am trying to make here is…it’s really hard to pick a NAME for an unborn child.  It was quite the challenge at our house.  Darren loved the names Valarie, Paige, and Reagan.  I ADORED Kennedy, Katherine aka. Katie, and Elizabeth.  Every time we brought up a name, we argued.  We are NOT one of those cute couples that had names picked out for our children before we married, we could barely pick out the washer and dryer.  Luckily we FINALLY agreed on a name we both liked…..drum roll please….

Carlee Anne

We wanted to find a family middle name that would work with Carlee, like C. Spencer (after his dad and uncle) but we could never think of anything.   I used a name after one of my favorite children’s books and it worked perfect.  As soon as we chose Anne, we realized Anne is actually a family name too….Anne is Aunt Julie’s middle name and Ann is Nena’s (my stepmother) middle name. 

Being a teacher, the meaning of the names weren’t as important to me as picking a name that didn’t evoke memories of someone else, wasn’t so hard to spell, too radical, too common, and too hard to sound out.  It turns out that Connor actually means…STRONG WILLED.  Can you believe that?  I should have named him something like Zola which means Peaceful and Quiet. Like Shakespeare would say it’s what something IS, not named, and no one with 50% of my genes is going to be peaceful and quiet.  Carlee means Strong Female Leader (we need one more of those at our house).

So there you go. We have a Connor and a Carlee and couldn’t be happier.  We have cleaned out the spare bedroom, painted walls, laid new carpet, and last night ordered the nursery furniture.  A few more months now, and my anticipation is growing; along with the rest of me. 

I’m only 5’2 so I only have one direction I can go...OUT…and I  think major organs are being shifted, breathing is awkward at night. Mr. Shakespeare would say, How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.   

I have no idea how that quote really applies to my blog, but all the 90s hip-hop lyrics I know are not appropriate, except maybe "cosmo says your fat, but I ain’t down with that…baby got back”.  Love Sir Mix a Lot, now that is a cool name!!!