A girl of many names
I've been called a lot of things.
Not just funny names that people call me, but I have a lot of actual names, and seem to attract a fair few nicknames too.
When my dad was growing up, his surname was Carolan - but when he was 21 he changed it to Carlan. So as I was growing up my surname was Carlan. Not a bad surname actually - pretty tricky to make fun of at school, which is an important quality for a surname to have I think.
My middle name on the other hand...
When my mum was growing up, her surname was Snowball. Yep, laugh if you like, we won't be offended, I reckon they've heard all the jokes. Well I have Snowball as my middle name - you should see the funny looks I get in airports when I have to show my passport!
When I was 21 a few dramatic things were going on in my world, and I decided to make a bit of a new start and changed my surname to Carolan. Much prettier I thought. Still relatively hard to make fun of. Except for this conversation which I seem to spend my life having:
Q: "Could I have your surname please?"
Me: "Carolan"
Q (with a clear 'you are such a dumbass' tone in their voice): "No Carolyn, your surname, your last name???"
Me (with an obvious 'I'm not the dumbass, dumbass' tone): "Yes, that is my last name!"
Actually a lot of people can't be bothered figuring it out and just call me Carolan as a first name. I'm okay with that actually - I'll answer to it. Randomly a lot of people call me Emma - I can't figure this out, but I guess it does kind of sound like Amy...?
Some people call me Snowball - they're usually giggling when they say it. This doesn't bother me either. I can pretty much win a 'I'm not telling you my middle name because it's silly' competition hands down.
Add this to the fact that I have two more first names, and you get a rather lengthy moniker of Amy Louise Snowball Carolan. Quite distinguised I think. Can you imagine if I married a guy with a double barrelled surname? Oh the hilarity ;-)
I also like the meaning of names. What does your name mean?
Mine is Amy: beloved Louise: warrior princess
Our family legend says that Snowball was from an albino German Viking (I occasionally doubt the authenticity of this legend!) and on the Carolan side (my great grandfather changed it from O'Carolan when he moved over from Ireland) we have a famous blind Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan.
I have a rare talent for finding 4-leaf clovers (yes, it is a talent) and a lot of my friends call me Clover. I wear a lot of pink (it's the new black) and a lot of my friends call me Pinky. I'm okay with those too. There are other random nicknames that people call me, and I'm okay with everything really. I like nicknames! I like giving people nicknames too, so watch out for that. (Sunny Boy - you know what I'm talking about!) I don't like it when people get my name wrong, or forget my name. I do make an effort to remember people's names, and to pronounce them properly - I think it's disrespectful not to make the effort really.
The best name I've gotten so far turned up today though. The lovely Heidi Eileen (yes, I remember people's middle names!) emailed me the most hilarious spreadsheet, where you type in your name and it predicts what your job should be, based on your name. Well clearly this is an anointed spreadsheet of God (see below for my answer). I always knew, I always knew that I was marked out for greatness!
6 comments:
It's great to have you back blogging again!!
Love it, just love it!
Sarah is Hebrew for Princess - and 43% of ppl think it's excellent.. only 7% don't like it, and it's gets a 4 out of 5 star rating! Not bad for the most common name ever!
Just as well I am already a believer... Michelle is french and means 'Who is like God?'. And then to just truly confirm my identity Joanne is Hebrew and means 'God is gracious'.
Mum and dad did a pretty good job of picking it considering I was named after a clown my brother loved watching on the t.v.!
hilarious Amy... totally annointed spreadsheet
Hehehe- You are as of now known as 'Mistress Clover, Empress of the World'. That works.
So you know the whole Warrior, Princess, Daughter thing? I fit the Warrior description very well, considering my name means 'War-like'. I thought it was pretty cool that God knew I needed a warrior name. :)
(fjduzaxt)
Oh Amy you think YOU have trouble with your name! Try being called. . . Katy. Quite simple you think, easily pronounced you may think! Oh no. Ohhhh no. The most common pronounciation is of course 'Kathy' as apparently the 'h' is spelled silently. This is closely followed by Cat-ey, which is even more closely followed by people being shocked (shocked I tell you) that K-a-t with a -Y was even ever invented! How bizarre, they tell me, how incredibly weird and wacky that somebody would put a Y at the end of those three letters. And P.S How do you pronounce that?
I try to grit my teeth and smile, reminding people that in 99% of all words in the English language ending with y, the y is pronounced 'e' such as 'university' or 'glory' or even 'please shut the door on your way outy'.
Don't even get me started on the whole 'and how do you spell that one' catastrophe!
But my personal favourite name that I have mistakenly been called . . Poky!
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