Thursday, July 10, 2008

Names


Recently I was invited by Kathy Spiers to attend the Cotton Festival in Hedley, Texas.

This is Hedley:

http://www.geocities.com/cityofhedley/?20087

Kathy is writing a history of the town and I asked her the question that I had always wanted to know. My dad (Veron Llyod Webb) had always told me that my when my grandfather, Dr. James William Webb, delivered a child he would ask the parents "What are we going to name this baby?" If the parents did not have a name picked out, he would supply one. Dad said granddad like to give out the first name of "Webb" as well as names of his brothers and sisters -- Max, Thresa etc. (No that was not a spelling error) Thresa. My mom, Mildred Scott Webb, told me that one of the women in her Sunday school class had been named Thresa, and said to her, "You know where I got that name." Well Kathy told me that her mom Patsy Vernon Spiers could textify to the family story as she was both delivered and named by Dr. Webb.

The Romans used to day "Nomen est Omen.: That a name was an Omen. This was meant as a useful guide to parents. It has also become a German Metal song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLFcdwJUK84

But what interests me is the number of parents that pick names wuth bad Wyrds for their offspring. Every year that I teach I have Cassandras -- and yes, nobody belives them. None of these girls have ever heard of the Princess of Troy, certainly none of them know the literal meaning of the name = "She who hang/entangles women." Even more to my surpise none of them care. A few kids always ask to look up their name on the Internet and scoff at the idea that I migfht know their names' meanins simply by having been on this planet for nealry half a century. Alsmot known of them know the biblical roots of James, Matthew, Juan or Abel.

The power of name is strong ju-ju, ask any school teacher about the beahvior of a Jesus, Angel, or Christian. These kids will do their damndest to be the Anti- from of these things. makes me wonder how Anton La Vey's last kid, Satan Karnacki La Vey turned out.

1 comment:

Apotropos said...

'Don' means 'King' (Rex), does it not? Seems fitting. During my brief stint in graduate school, I wrote a paper on the Concept of Destiny in Greek and Latin. A concept (as you know) I have been obsessed with for years. For most of my life I had known that the etymology of my name was "Bearer/carrier of Christ". I had also known the *reason* my parents had chosen to give me that name. What I didnt know, and what I discovered in my research, was the pre-Christian meaning of my name was "Anoiter of Destiny". The realization of that my name carried my personal obsession with this topic was shocking to me.