Art of Eloquence Blog — names RSS

What's in a name? I think the thing that is most frustrating in communicating with someone is when you mess up their name.  Folks don't mind too much of you mess up the town they live in or the name of their car, the school they went to, but their name is personal and I think folks feel like you are messing with them when you mispronounce or misspell their name. Now my given name is Joanne.  Not very unusual, but I guess the way I pronounce it over the phone with my accent made it sound like something else.  I would often have to say it three times and then get, "Oh hello Jillian!"  UGH! And don't get me...

My brother and his wife are having their second baby.  It's a boy.  They have asked that the family keep the name suggestions to ourselves.  I guess we all got a bit overwhelming with the suggestions for their first child and they'd like to do this one SOLO.  Here's what started the whole family naming ritual... We already had a name picked out if our first child was a boy:  Christopher Ryan.  And it was supposed to be a boy.  She was supposed to be a boy.  The doctor told us she was a boy, but on the off chance she wasn't a boy, we needed a girl's name! My folks, well actually my mom, was a HUGE help in...