The gal who cuts my hair and I are giving one another new names. Her name, Tia, is actually perfect for her, but mine is boring beyond belief, so I am very happy to be considering new possibilities. When I mentioned this to my poetry group, one of the women said she changed her first name when she re-married and her “new” husband of now 25 years still calls her by the new name. Others in the group admitted they had changed their names, too: a little, a lot, previously, now.
My last name changed, twice, because I changed it both times I married. I kept my married name from my first marriage until I re-married. So from age 26 when I got divorced to age 39 I was using someone else’s name. When I married my current husband I changed my name to his, which was kind of a joke because he was adopted and the name didn’t really belong to him, either. We were a good match!
I didn’t change my name in part because I did not like my maiden name. My married name was nothing special at all, but I had used it at work for ten years and people called me by my last name. I don’t recall why…I was a supervisor and I guess my “subordinates” found it more appealing than using Ms. or Mrs., which would have been bogus anyway. I was happy to get rid of it especially after I learned that there was another woman by the same first and last name who had unpaid bills, unreturned library books and various run-ins with the police and ex-boyfriends, which explained some very weird and nasty phone calls late at night.
Then three years ago, my husband and I went for flu shots and the gal checking us in had us at two different addresses. Well, not yet, I said. So I learned there is another Mary R. with a very similar birth date. Now I always double check the address whenever I deal with that clinic.
My husband’s initials are RLR, our cat is Rio and when we married, I thought I should change my first name to an R as well: Renata, perhaps, or Rita. Actually, I kind of like my current initials: MCR. Like McR, the Irish poet. Ha.
So, I named Tia “Sidney Louisa.” I like how that sounds, but when I told my husband, he said, you mean like Sid? Isn’t that a guy’s name?
Tia named me “Claudette Amalie.” Very French; very pretty. She said that Claudette sounds sophisticated. Or mature.
I going to see Tia next week and I am working on an Italian name for her. Here are some names I picked that I like and what they mean:
Chiara – clear, bright
Elena – from Greek H elena, meaning torch
Felisa – happy, lucky
Luisa – famous warrior
Natale – Italian form of Latin Natalia, meaning birthday
Noemi – my delight, my pleasantness
Milana/Maria Elena
Simona – harkening
Violetta – violet
My choice: Chiara Elena. The Ch is pronounced like K. It sounds sexy to me and a little musical, almost poetic. H’mmm…maybe it should be mine.
poeticpossibilities 