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Last Name First: Labeling the Rose |
Written by Sigrid Macdonald
Wednesday, 29 June 2005
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Last name first: labelling the rose Published by the Globe and Mail, Facts & Arguments By SIGRID MACDONALD Sigrid is an Old Norse name; it means "a beautiful victory." Apparently, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was reading a three-volume saga set in medieval Norway called Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. She named me Sigrid and my sister Kristin. Little did she know that one name was to become popular whereas the other -- my name -- would remain highly unusual in New Jersey where I grew up. I was born in Canada but my father was part of the 1950s brain drain; unable to establish a thriving medical practice in Winnipeg, he moved the family to New Jersey when I was 5. My town, Wyckoff, NJ, was predominantly Anglo-Saxon but there were some Europeans, including a large number of Italians and a modest Jewish community. Susan was a common name. Sigrid was foreign. Susan was pronounceable. Sigrid was distorted into the most unimaginable forms like Sigreid, Seegrid, Singrid, Zigrid and Sigfried. I was teased good-naturedly by other students and called "Cigar," "Cigarette" and "Sigmund." My only consolation was that I didn't have psychedelic parents who had named me Moon Unit or Zowie Bowie. Slowly, in my 30s, I began to grow into my name. I bought a Saab. I studied my Icelandic family genealogy and yearned to travel to Scandinavia. I found that there were advantages to having a unique name. For example, I could just refer to myself as Sigrid and everyone would know me -- it was like being Sting or Madonna! When I moved back to Canada in 1988 and entered the age of multiculturalism, it was infinitely easier to have a different name. On my own street, we have a Naveen, a Nizam, a Faruk and a Yaneck. No wonder people don't question Sigrid the way they used to in my previous, homogenized Anglo world. Now, we are in yet another era: the age of Internet baby naming. For not much money, expectant parents can buy computer software that will generate thousands of "cool baby names." Or they can pay more money to the baby-name generators for "professionals" to choose 20 names based on one's ethnicity and individual likes. Or people can simply get a great laugh by visiting the web site called "The Institute for Naming Children Humanely," where "The Chairman" (i.e. the web site owner) lists hundreds of names and tells people whether or not they are appropriate. Most names are inappropriate in his opinion because they might subject children to ridicule or ostracism. Unsuitable names include first names that are commonly used as last names, such as Taylor and Madison or names like Richard Alan Thomas which look fine at first glance but closer scrutiny reveals it spells the initials RAT. Think of his monogrammed towels! Equally offensive are the "Let me spell that" category of names like Amie instead of Amy. Poor Amie, estimates The Chairman, "will spend 58 days out of her lifetime correcting the spelling of her name, enough time for her to learn sign language, join an extra-curricular club, or otherwise allow her parents to live vicariously through her." Wow. According to this logic, if I'd been named Susan, I could have done an MBA with all the free time I would have saved by spelling both my first and last name! (That's Macdonald, M-A-C with a small d.) Obviously, the name Sigrid was not mentioned by the Institute and would no doubt have been deemed inappropriate, although the Chairman did concede that names that are popular with one's ethnic group are acceptable. Clearly, the Institute for Naming Children Humanely is meant to be satirical but far too much time and effort went into it to dismiss it as pure sarcasm. Much of it is truth in jest. The author believes that there is a right and a wrong way to name children and dozens of other web sites agree. Many sites offer useful information with huge databases including lists of political names, names for Utah Mormons, names on the Civil Rights Memorial, and even Harry Potter names. Ironically, on one hand, the Internet attempts to increase the name pool for prospective parents -- yet, at the same time, all of the "do and don't" tips tend to narrow the name field considerably. I'm glad that my mother used her literary creativity to bestow upon me a distinct ethnic name, despite the difficulties that it presented to me when I was young. As an adult, I value the great diversity of names around me and I hope that expectant parents won't rely too heavily on cyberspace for naming their newborns. After all, The Chairman only approved the use of 220 names for both genders! I suspect that he would have preferred my father's Scottish side of the family to the Icelanders. The Clan Ranald Macdonald repeatedly named hundreds of years of offspring John, Ronald, Donald, Catherine and Mary. No spelling problems there, but then again, naming a child Ronald Macdonald in today's fast-food world would surely constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Recently, I helped my mother track down long-lost friends, Helen and Robert MacDonald, using the Internet. When I looked up Robert MacDonald in Ontario on the Canada 411 Internet phone directory, I found 85 listings, so I looked up their children on their high-school alumni message board. Eureka! I found Bobby MacDonald within 10 days and my mother was reunited with her long-lost friend. I'll wager Sigrid Macdonald would have been found much faster. Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
About The Author:
Sigrid Macdonald is a freelance writer who resides in Ottawa, Ontario. She has written two books. Her first book, Getting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacement, serves as a patient's guide to help people to recover from hip surgery with a minimal amount of pain and discomfort. More information is available at www.sigridsrecovery.blogspot.com.
Macdonald's second book is a novel entitled D'Amour Road. The book explores diverse themes from female friendships to violence against women to unrequited love. It is all about two women who are about to turn 40; one of them goes missing and the other must launch a massive search to find her friend in conjunction with the police, her quirky women's collective, and a younger man whom she finds particularly captivating. Read more about D'Amour Road at www.damourroad.blogspot.com.
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