I Surprise Myself At Times

Yesterday I looked in the phone book for the name Patrick McGroin to see if he really lived in Aurora. I was suspicious of the surname. It didn't sound like any Irish name I had ever known.

Finnigan,Flannigan,McCafferty,McCabe,Kennedy and McGoogan,
Wolohan,Hoolihan.Monoghan and Gorman
Murphy and McGorrigle

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of others and I do believe I would recognise them all.

Patrick is very Irish.  People who take names seriously don't allow them to be shortened. I always identify myself as Evelyn. My second name is  Mary. I use the initial. It is who I am.

My children are known by the names I gave them. My siblings  names were those  given at the time of Christening.

Only one of my children's names was allowed to be changed.. My son Frank was christened Francis John. Both family names. My father was John. His father was  Patrick and his  father's brother  was  Francis They are  good strong names, fitting for the good strong men I intended my sons to be.

In Canada, Frances is a girl's name. I couldn't let my son be known by a girl's name. I allowed it to be changed. I didn't know at the time there was a great white hunter by the name of Frank Buck but there was no  option anyway.

Names are important. My sons are called .... Stephen, Francis(Frank) Martin, Mark and Andrew.

My daughter Heather is not called for a flower. Heather is a  strong, fibrous bracken that covers the moors and mountains of Scotland  in clumps like gigantic blankets that keep the earth warm, stands up to everything the  environment has to throw at it and  stays strong, vibrant and beautiful in every season.

Theresa is tall and fair and named to please my mother.I did think of the shortened version which was Terry. That was my younger brother's name. Theresa is always given her full name.

So I think names matter. I think a person's name should be  respected. I think people should respect their own name and not allow it to be degraded.

If a commenter to a blog doesn't want to identify themselves that's fine. Better they should say what they have to say,incognito for whatever reason, than keep resentment and anger bottled up inside them. A chuckle should certainly be shared. We don't laugh nearly enough at ourselves.

I think the social  media will prove to be a great advance in  political affairs when we get used to it.

But I don't  think a good strong name like Patrick should be  corrupted to say something disgusting and indecent.

So there! I have revealed a prudish  part of me. Something else that's sacred .

If you don't want to use the name your mother chose for you the day you came into the world,  at least  take the trouble to think of a decent alternative or  better still , one that would  make  your mother smile.