Rebecky wrote:Shann wrote:As for names for your characters I'm with Becky about the Mckenzie being his last name and then his nickname could still be Ken and his first name Nick which could be a double dose of picking because Nicky could also be a girls' name along with McKenzie and then through in his middle name to be something like Robin or Terry
Well if is first name isn't McKenzie then why would he go by Ken?
[*] Actually what made me think of him going by Ken is because I had a friend whose last name was Mathieu, her brother's nickname was Matt. I've also seen that an older sibling may grab the more common nickname from their last name like in this case Mac but because little brother wants his own identity he goes by the name Ken or Kenz.
Often in High school and college a lot of guys get a nickname based from their last name (unless your last name is Hall-LochmannVanBennekom
though one of hubby's nicknames was Alphabet ) which is why Quinten's nickname is Q. Before he was born I believed I'd probably call him Quin so I went with the irregular spelling and pronunciation. In fact I had someone tell me I was pronouncing his name wrong. She insisted it should be QUENT --in (rhymes with went) the T can barely be heard. I tried to set her straight and tell her his name is Quin-TEN but she insisted over and over that I was incorrect! Not only was I pronouncing it wrong but I was putting the accent on the second syllable instead of the first! I've had several people tell me I spell it wrong. (insert eye roll) We joked over the years that on his birthday we would change his name so he was Quin-two, Quin-three and so on.
A lot of people (at least in this area do a couple of things to a name. One of Lyd's nickname is Lidz and rarely Lizard but she also gets a fair share of Lidderz. The only 2 people in the world you can get by calling her Lyddie is her Daddy and her grandmother.
With Emily I thought I'd call her Emmy until I heard someone say it and wanted to barf. My mom came up with the idea of "M" I really liked that. Many Emily's are called Em but just plain M is a bit rarer. Mom would put the quotation marks around it but I don't.
I wanted to name Lyd Esther but everyone had such a visceral reaction to it, claiming it was an old lady's name. I tried to reason that the old ladies were once babies but still people dreaded it. In fact my friends in OB threatened to change it on the birth certificate if I named her that and they were just about crazy enough that I didn't want to have to pay to get it changed back. Plus I would have likely called her "S" and the initials S and M don't go well together and then add Q to the mix and I could see mean girls drooling all over the world. Next was Hayley but my husband kept saying Hail-ee. I figured if her own father couldn't get it right then everyone would mess it up.
What with my name being Shann rarely does anyone get it right on the first try and some on the 4, 5 or 6 time. I have had arguments with people that my name is really Shannon and Shann just a nickname. In fact, in Junior High I was called to the principal's office and scolded for continuing to put my nickname on my homework. I think my mom had to come in and settle the debate.
She knew a lady whose name was Shirley Ann and her nickname was Shann. Mom thought it was super pretty and asked the lady if she would mind. The lady (who was murdered by her husband when I was about 9 or 10) gave Mom her blessing. She wanted to name my middle name after my Grandma but G-ma said that it would be cruel to saddle the kid with 2 weird names. G-ma's name was Arla. Though I think it's pretty, it doesn't really flow as well-- Shann Arla or Shann Marie which sounds better?
Okay I'm done with my thesis about names. Wait--almost done! I've had this idea for an online company for several years now but my husband thinks no one would pay for it. But I want to help people come up with different names. I'd get a website and offer a free questionaire that would include things like Do you want a traditional name or something different? What is your maiden name? Do you have any family names? Would you like to honor someone? And so on. Then for something like $5 I would come up with 5 girls and 5 boys or 10 of the same sex (including middle names) Then for an additional $3 bucks or so I would print out an 8x10 certificate that describes the origin of the name, its meaning along with expected personality traits and then they could frame it and keep it for their baby.
I have the meaning and personality traits of each of my kids and it's kind of freaky how well they matched those traits. And it wasn't traits that could relate to anyone. Like for Emily she matched 9 out of 10 traits but if I were to use those same traits for Lydia or Q they would only match 2 or 3. I still have their names on my wall. Maybe I'll find Andy's name and frame that and give them both as a wedding present. And since Andy's last name is one that could be a first name maybe I'll do that as well.
I did find out that Emily is not keeping or even hyphenating her last name. Sigh I can't imagine why. When I told Mom I was keeping my maiden name she had a cow and insisted I was only doing it to be different. I told her if I wanted to be different I'd change to LochmannVanBennekom! Though with so many hyphenated names I wonder if people would start doing that Lydia could become Hall-LochmannVanBennekom-Van Durme-Smith! talk about a mouthful. For the record the reason I kept my maiden name is because Emily (who was
didn't want to be the only Hall in the family so when Chris adopted her we changed it to Hall_Loch.... and then as an anniversary present I changed mine to Hall- Loch... too except NYS Nursing Board must have thought it was a joke because even though I tried several times to change it they refused so my name on my nursing license is Shann Hall so those in the medical community know me as that.
This was going to be just a quick howdy--no wonder I don't get anything done!
Off to consider a story for blessing. I have 2 ideas neither is too far out of the box so I'll have to see which one works out better.
(And that is why I wear matching undies) Thank Goodness it was a sock and not underwear.
