What's in a Name?

What is in a name? Probably more than you have ever considered......especially if you have a given name that everyone likes or one that is especially timely and popular in our day. But what if you did not luck out and your parents named you Hilda, or Fanny, or Bertha, or Gwinivere (Guinevere or how ever you want to spell it) or Aloyushius, or Sadie???

Were you or have you ever been teased about your name? I mean really teased until you wanted to escape, hit someone in the face, or cry? I have heard enough about mine during my life. I have been called Hildegard, Hildy, Hulda, Helga, BattleMaid (due to the fact that the name meaning is something about the Germanic maiden leading into battle), and a host of other things. I wonder if my parents even considered how much I would be teased about the first given name they chose or how much I would hate it. And hate it, I do!!! Why couldn't I have been named some common name that everyone respects or likes? Why did it have to be Hilda????

I went to school with a very pretty girl whose first name was Fanny. Believe it or not her name was Fanny Regina. She was called Regina but when the boys in school found out what her first name was she could not escape their harassment. The teasing did not stop even when she was a senior in high school.

It has been particularly interesting to me that folks seem to be going back to some of the old names that were used many years ago. Names such as Cornelia, Phoebe, Gertrude, Clementine, Chloe, Harriet, Juanita, Olive, Olivia, Sophie, Isabella, Nora, among others are being used more often as given names for children. I always wonder why people want to name their children strange names or to spell them in odd ways. It is the child who will carry this "burden" all through their lives. It is the child who will be teased, bullied, and even abused because of the name their parents chose for them. Studies have been done on the influence a name has in how individuals are regarded or treated. I always am interested in what they indicate because of my name. While I was in college and away from the South I noted that many professors preferred to call me Jane my (middle name). I suppose they, too, could not believe anybody would name their child something as disgusting as Hilda.