The Names People Give Children
After going to the other side for a housewarming party, Wendy and I went to Ikea on Saturday. Right by the door was the children's play area. It's a pretty nice service--drop your kids off in this really cool, safe, enclosed playground and get a restaurant-style pager in exchange (for emergency, I suppose). They even print out the child's name and age and affix it to the back of the child's shirt. I was able to see all of this because the enclosure has a plexiglass wall that makes the playground into a zoo exhibit for homo juevenilus. I was shocked, though, when reading over the children's names to find only two "traditional" names (Emily and Sydney, which barely qualifies) in a sea "new" names--at least 20 of them. Here's a partial list: Odessa (f), Sienna (f), Kamryn (m), Sage (m), Overton (m).
I grew up with an uncommon name and while I resented it when I was little, I quickly came to appreciate it--but never just because it was uncommon. My name has a history, a meaning. It's one I shared with my father and my grandfather and other ancestors. People want to give their kids funky names, which is fine, but names are supposed to encapsulate some information about who we are, and who and where we are from. I think people are doing this to impart some sense of individuality to their kid, and that seems odd to me.
On an unrelated side note, on my way to work this morning, I heard one older guy--his 40s--say to another about that same age, "Yeah, well I'm going to go through the park on my way home, see if anybody is holdin'." It was like dialog out of a novel.
I finished The Disappearing Body
, which had a thick network of subplots and lots of interesting characters but kind of devolved into mystery-book cliche at the end.
I grew up with an uncommon name and while I resented it when I was little, I quickly came to appreciate it--but never just because it was uncommon. My name has a history, a meaning. It's one I shared with my father and my grandfather and other ancestors. People want to give their kids funky names, which is fine, but names are supposed to encapsulate some information about who we are, and who and where we are from. I think people are doing this to impart some sense of individuality to their kid, and that seems odd to me.
On an unrelated side note, on my way to work this morning, I heard one older guy--his 40s--say to another about that same age, "Yeah, well I'm going to go through the park on my way home, see if anybody is holdin'." It was like dialog out of a novel.
I finished The Disappearing Body
, which had a thick network of subplots and lots of interesting characters but kind of devolved into mystery-book cliche at the end.
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