Names

When I taught Mattie how to prepare coffee and handed that job over to her, I guess I forgot to mention to her that it would also be her job to get the coffee……or at least let one of us that can drive know that we are out so that someone can get more.  I really missed my coffee this morning, especially since it was raining.  Rainy, cold mornings just feel better with a warm cup of cozy.  That, and without the little kick of caffeine and with the extra dreariness, I was slowwwwww movin’.  A funny story in all this, we stopped by Starbucks on the way home from picking up Mattie from school.  When I got up to the drive thru window, the Barista guy looked at me and made this weird winky, double gun finger gesture thing to me.  I gave him an odd look and rather hesitantly, half-heartedly did it back.  He then gave me a big smile and said, “Weren’t you here earlier?” And to that, I just shook my head and said no.  So to you Starbucks Man who thought he made a love connection with a patron earlier today, I am so sorry that I was not her coming back through your drive-thru.  I am pretty sure though that whether you know it or not, you are thanking your lucky stars that I am not her, because there were 3 carseats in the back of my car holding a whole lot of crazy that you probably wouldn’t want to be a part of.  And my husband probably wouldn’t make your life very happy either, I don’t imagine.  I hope his lady comes back tomorrow. And I hope Brandon brings home more coffee for Mattie tonight.

So names……I love names.  I like to see how people spell them, I like to hear the funny ones.  I like to hear the stories behind how people picked names for their own children and how they got their own.  Since I was a little girl, I have always liked reading the names in credits of tv shows and movies.  I love names. One of my favorite people is expecting a baby.  I am so excited about this and the other day it just occurred to me that they would be picking out a little name.  It looks as though a name is all set it place and I am walking around my house getting used to saying it, which I can’t do without a big smile on my face.

I love the stories behind names, I am named after a street in Orlando.  Nothing significant about this particular street, my mom just saw the street sign when she was pregnant with me and thought it was pretty.  She also had a feeling that she was having a little girl and so it was decided that should I indeed be a girl, I would be named Kaylee.  I really don’t know where the Elizabeth came from, except that it was a pretty name.  My brother got his name from a John Denver song, the Matthew part.  Again, I really don’t know anything about the middle name Todd.  Mattie is named after my brother.  I remember telling him before I was even married that I was going to name my frist child after him.  He thought I was ridiculous, but now that he’s gone, I am so grateful that I didn’t listen to him.  I’m also thankful that he knew I did, too.  And Belle, well it was just very pretty.

I love how babies down here in the south often get named after their mother’s maiden names.  Reese is one of those babies.  And he carries his daddy’s middle name, too.  I hope that if he has his own little boy, he will carry on the same tradition and give it his wife’s maiden name and the middle name Christian.  And Lila, she’s named after a character in my favorite tv show.  She also has my middle name.  And being a southern girl, she often gets called Lila Beth, especially by her Poppy.

But even more than names, I am fascinated by the names that people go by.  My mom was named Constance, a very stately name.  But I don’t know that she has ever been called that seriously.  And after giving their first child such a proper and let’s face it, stiff name that she didn’t go by, my grandparents named my uncle Tommy.  Not Tom, not Thomas, just Tommy.  They named him what they were going to call him and they planned to call him Tommy.  My bestie, Steph has a little girl whose birth certificate says, Monroe, but very early in life she became Rosie and that’s how she introduces herself now.  She has a little sister who also has a very pretty, M name on her birth certificate but since the day she was born, she was christened KiKi and its been that ever since.  Fact is, if you were to ask me about McKinley Murrill, I don’t think I would know who you were talking about.

It’s funny how when picking a name for a child or even a pet, you want something that sounds pretty or cool or whatever, but after a while that name gets changed, modified and  takes on a whole new sound either because of the person who it is attached to or because it has actually been changed a little to accommodate them.  I have two people in my life who share the same name.  One of those people is that person who’s expecting the baby that I mentioned earlier on.  The other person is someone who is in my life, but attached to a lot of pain and hurt.  Even though they share a name, it sounds completely different to me when I am talking about each of them.  Weird how that works.  And Lila’s name, it got converted into “Little”  or “Lil” pretty quick.  I think, especially to her siblings, she will always be “Lil”.  Mattie is Sissy, Reese will be Reesie even when he is a strapping young man who could pick his mama up and carry her around, and since Lila is the baby, she will always be our Little.  Even the name “Mom”, so many of us have it, but it’s still uniquely our own.  I think whenever any woman who is someone’s mom see’s a t-shirt with the words, “Mommy’s little something or other” printed on it, we feel like it has been personalized.  “That shirt has my name on it” we think to ourselves.  Even though I am called Mom and can seconds later call out to my own mom, the name sounds unique each time.  Just like how in a crowded store when a little voice calls out ,”Mama?” , there is usually only one voice that replies back to it.  Maybe it’s not so much that the names we hold are so dear, but instead it’s the ones who call us by those names.  The ones who have given us these monikers.  My mom and dad named me Kaylee, my brother named me Kay Kay, my closest people call me Kay and my babies call me “Mama”.

 

 

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