What will you call me?

We have three children and two have family names and the middle son is named after our favorite names at the time.  Charlotte Louise, our first born, was named after two of our grandmothers, Christopher William, our third child, was named after my brother and all the Bills in our family (there are 4).  I was in the hospital for about 4 weeks before he was born 6 weeks early, we named him after the men in our family feeling it would give him a fighting spirit.  Nathan Scott was named after a character in Ben Ames Williams' "Come Spring”, a wonderful book, and Scott was my husband's favorite name.  Nate never liked that he was not named after family.  I could never get across to him how much we loved his name.

      I never liked my own name as it was spelled differently than a more common spelling and it was often misspelled.  Now I like that it is different. 

     Listen to any expectant couple today as they try to name their babies, it must be unique, it must be original and most of all it must not be associated with someone they know, unless they really love them, and it CANNOT be rhymed with or turned into some humiliating nickname.

  I am not sure we thought as much about nicknames and how our children might be teased by others because of their name.  Is it because bullying has become worse and people are protective; thinking they can actually create a "tease free" name therefore a "tease free" life? 

    

Unfortunately what we know is that forget about your birth name....there are plenty of other names that can label us for life.  People are called all sorts of names based on their size, age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and even their political leanings.  We can be defined by labels we never heard of before or by the familiar standbys. 

   

After working in the school system, with teens, for about 8 years I can tell you there are children who are rarely called by their birth name.  Maybe they are called something cool, giving the impression that they are popular or athletic, or maybe they are called many things that mean only one thing "You do not belong!" 

     What is in a

“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat.’Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'

'Cats don't have names,' it said.

'No?' said Coraline.

'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”

― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

     What's in a name?  In Mark 14:1-11 there is an "unnamed woman" who lavishes expensive oil on Christ's.  This woman, in a man's world, made it into the Bible because of her actions and her insight. She showed extravagant and wasteful love...for this image she is remembered.  Jesus referred to himself as light and bread, signs of hope and community….through these images he is remembered.  Imagine yourself…unnamed----who are you?