Everyday Canvas

That Name of Mine!

Prompt: Names
"It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor fame."
Henry David Thoreau, Walking
Why do you think we are given names at birth? Do you know what your name means and do you live up to it? What about the people you know and their relationships to their names?

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Oh, the names I give to myself! Believe me, they have nothing to do with that name my mother granted me.

Well, she gave me that(!) name because her father's name meant happiness, joyful or something like that. So, in that way, my name is a re-run. Just like that poor cartoon boy, Rerun, Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.

It means to me that my mother's father's name, as much as it carried a positive connotation, can also point to the fact that she wanted me to father her. Eeeek! Heavy burden on a baby, don't you think...even if the name evoked positive emotions in her? Still, I had never met my grandfather as he had passed away years before I was born; therefore, I had no inkling what to do with such a name. I still, don't!

When I looked into what kind of a person my grandfather was, I learned that, from the rest of our family and relatives, he was a joker, sometimes even playing practical jokes on people. Most remembered him with love and laughter or maybe they told it to me that way. Who knows!

It is said that most people, subconsciously, live up to their names. Really? Take Adolf Hitler for example. Adolf means "noble or majestic wolf." He was a wolf all right but not the noble kind. Far from it! In fact, he put all the wolves and the entire animal kingdom to shame.

Granted, my name carries a positive vibe and it does have cross-cultural references that may have to do with literary connections and happiness, but I'm no joker like my grandfather...I think.

Then, I also take a breath of relief with this thought; at least, my name has nothing to do with any big bad wolf.


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