What is in a name?

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare.

But is he right? Today’s news included the fact that the color of orange juice is the primary factor in determining whether people think it tastes good.

Maybe a rose called a pickladabom wouldn’t smell as sweet.

Maybe a person called by another name would be another person.

Throughout history there have been cultures who did not call each other by their true names, for these held power. There have been others whose nicknames were all negative, because to say something positive would be to call out the evil spirits.

My eldest is named from my belief system. His name means “The Lord is the god of me.” (Okay, that’s a rough translation, but…)

But my son has decided to be an atheist. He has no names which are not from my belief system. Even his last name is historically from it. So what will he be called? Does he want to be called something else?

He hasn’t said.

But he has talked about his desire to call his oldest son Ted. He likes the name Ted. So he asked me what it is a nickname of. I told him Theodore. What, he asked, (Because he knows I have a hobby of knowing what names mean or because he asks me everything so he doesn’t have to look it up?) does Theodore mean. When I told him it means “God lover” he decided he needed some other name for his son. To date Tederval is winning in the sweepstakes for child names for my grandson. I don’t dislike Tederval at all. But I am sad that my son has eschewed Theodore because of its meaning.

And even worse that he has turned against it because he has turned against God.

This post on naming was brought to the forefront of my mind by Daring Young Mom’s post on her son Magoo.