browngirl: (me-with-baby)
[personal profile] browngirl
[Error: unknown template qotd]

Not both and last, but this reminds me of the Story of my Given Name.



Long ago, during the magical time known as the 1970s, in a mystical land known as the Bronx, lived two young Jamaican immigrants who were married to each other, very much in love, and so poor they could only afford one magazine at a time. They were cuddled up together reading their magazine and they read about an African author, whose daughter had a name they liked very much, and they decided that if they had a daughter they would bestow upon her this special name.

They had a baby, which was a girl, to whom they gave this name, and who grew up to be me. Ever after, when I unroll my full name and people blink at the cascade of syllables, I say, "I was named during the '70s", and they laugh and nod in understanding.

(Also, some years later I met a woman a few years my senior who might possibly be the person I'm named after.)

Date: 2009-05-20 06:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ookpik.livejournal.com
My first name was fairly common among kids my age, but seems to be quite rare in later generations; my surname is a less-standard spelling of a moderately common one. But according to a website that I found a while back, I'm the only one in the US with this combination. (I'll post the link if I remember the website.)

An old friend/ex-boyfriend (very common first name, don't know about the last name but I haven't encountered it except in his family) moved to a new house and found that the neighbor a few houses down not only shared both of his names, but had almost the identical middle name (one of them doubled a consonant in the middle, the other didn't). As you might imagine, they got each other's mail all the time.

Profile

browngirl: (Default)
browngirl

June 2017

S M T W T F S
    12 3
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 16th, 2025 09:23 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios