What’s in a Name?
Blog Post January 27, 2024
So What’s in a Name?
Do you like your name? Does it fit you? Did your parents do well when they named you?
I’m pondering this right now because I’m reading a journal I kept in the years 1970-71 when I was taking a “gap year” (like they call it now), where I was doing church-related voluntary service, teaching nursery schoolers in Kentucky. (That was over 50 years ago, good grief!) I lived with five others, (we had 3 women and 3 men in our unit), and initially they were all strangers to me.
It is fascinating to read that journal because I was only 18 at the time and my faith was at a different point (a good point, but I used different religious language in my prayers and Sunday school classes etc. Perhaps you’ve changed too from when you were 18 going on 19.
What shocked me a little was finding an entry saying I thought my name Melodie didn’t fit me. I was at home (for Christmas vacation) when I wrote it and reflecting a bit on relationships and names.
Here’s what I wrote then. See what you think:
“Sometimes the me I present to other people isn’t me. For instance, the name Mel. Mel fits me so much better than Melodie. Mel is short, maybe ugly, bare, blunt. Melodie is pretty, long, and sweet sounding. To people who don’t know me well, I may seem like a Melodie, but those who know the mud of me call me Mel. Without all the nice sounding thoughts and writings, I’m just Mel. Maybe someday I’ll be a real, genuine Melodie, although I doubt it.”
Ok, I was 19 when I wrote that on Christmas Day. (Thank you, young Mel, for writing down dates!) I should add that in elementary and junior high, my friends usually referred to me as Mel, with some adding “Smelly” (stemming from names my sisters called me from being a late bed wetter) and also because I and my sisters all smelled bad when coming in from gathering eggs in our chicken houses.
Happy to say I’ve grown up a bit and no longer dislike my name. So many people gush over what a nice name it is. And I honor the name because my mother read a book with a sweet character she really liked and decided to call her third daughter by that same name with this spelling: Melodie Ann. (I’ve not always appreciated the ie on the end because I have to correct people so many times, but that’s not a big deal.)
And a shortened name never stuck with me after I married my husband Stuart. In his family, nicknames were forbidden. His parents never used them, tried to keep their three sons as Richard, Nolan, and Stuart, spelled this way and NOT Stewart. And NEVER Dick, Nol, or Stu. Yikes!
I feel sorry for children who are given monstrously long names. Imagine correcting a spelling like Natalia. Brynleigh. Aubrielle. (I even had to look at the name Brynleigh THREE times to get my spelling right here!). I have a great niece named Karleigh (who is adorbs like her other sisters!) but I bet when she is older she’ll give her mom fits for this spelling instead of, you know, Karly. Or something shorter. My granddaughter’s name could be pronounced about three different ways but she is adorable too and we wouldn’t trade her for all the names in China. I can finally say her name without stumbling.
Kids today are changing their names more often when they get to be a certain age and that may be fine, except for the long learning curve their family members go through.
Did I ever consider changing my name? No way.
And of course, I’ll never be a Shakespeare, if you’re trying to remember when my title came from.
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So, do you like your name? Have you always appreciated it or were there times you wished to have another name?
How have your religious leanings and expressions grown or changed? Or not?
Comment here! Join a conversation ….
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As you might have guessed, I turned my Voluntary Service journal into a book, still available here as used copies. It is called On Troublesome Creek: A True Story about Christian Service in the Mountains of Kentucky.
My siblings and I also enjoyed putting together a new small book this past year, Cultivating Fields, Faith and Family: Mom and Dad’s Memorable Mennonite Life, available on Amazon.
findingharmonyblog 
My name is Marlene Sue but of course everyone calls me Sue which can be confusing at times. My grandfather said, shes Susie to me, thats all it took. When I started to school, my mother didnt even tell me my name was Marlene! She just put M. Sue! Of course as I got older I had to start using my given name because my records and important papers came Marlene Sue. So doctors, high school, insurances, banks all used my given name. I finally got used to it, but at first they would call Marlene and I just sat there, then they repeated it and I was like “oh that’s me!”
I love this story–but not your difficulties at doctors, school, banks. Very interesting and I can imagine me doing the same thing “oh that’s me!” I did not know this history, although Tanya probably told me this about your full name. 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Melodie, I really like the melodious sound of your name, even though the spelling may be a bit tricky.
I’ve never liked my name. It rhymes with “librarian,” and although I love books, I don’t like the associative words: Stuffy, nose-in-the-books type. More sad to me, however, is the fact that I lack a middle name. Thus, on my driver’s license I see my maiden name “Longenecker,” instead of a cuter name like “Sue” or “Louise.”
People, even those who know me well, sometimes misspell my name. I made a spoof of it on a blog post once, bearing witness to the mutilation of my name: https://marianbeaman.com/2015/04/18/whats-in-a-name-2/
Thanks for taking me back to your post on “whats in a name.” I never would have thought about Marian rhyming with Librarian.
Yes, I do believe it is sad you weren’t given a middle name. Hmm. How about your other siblings? Did they have middles? We always thought it was odd for our Dad not to have a middle name, only a middle initial. Vernon U. Miller. We were told it didn’t stand for Uriah, which would have been logical, since his Dad’s name was Uriah M. Miller but that supposedly didn’t stand for his father’s name either, which was Moses. And then my Mom and Dad gave my brother the name Terry J. Miller, and the J. supposedly didn’t stand for anything either. (And I think I’ve already mentioned I named my brother Terry.) I was four at the time. Ah yes, what’s in a name! Thanks for your stories.
None of my siblings had middle names.
I too did some naming: I named my sister Jean.
Hi, Melodie. I just read your blog post about your journal. How wonderful that you kept it and that you kept it. I would like to comment on names. My name growing up was Judy Moody. My mother thought it would be cute, and I guess she was rebelling against her name, Valeria Marguerite Charlotte Carolyn Madeline Anderson Moody. I hated being Judy Moody. You can imagine what was made of it. My husband Dan was christened Fontaine deGraffenried Daniel after his recently deceased Presbyterian pastor grandfather. He was always called Dan, and when he was five his parents legally changed it to Lacy Stratton Daniel after his father Horace Lacy and his uncle Thomas Stratton. Thanks for writing. Judy
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I’m so glad you showed up here and shared your mother’s incredible name! And I sympathize with your Judy Moody. How did you turn out to be such a wonderful, giving, loving and creative human being with all that! The names you’ve shared are all fascinating. Kind of makes my siblings’ names all winners: Nancy, Linda, Terry. 🙂 Melodie was the unusual one. Which is ok too! Your last name now is so French! At least it seems that way to me.