What's in a Name?

I think naming a child is a special time in a parent's life. I think it's also something that should be taken seriously because of the long term implications it can have on the child for the rest of his/her life. Naming a child is not like naming a pet. A pet will act the same way whether its name is Nathaniel or Spot. A person on the other hand, I'm not so sure. I don't think it'd be fair to name your son Spot and expect him to be a rocket scientist. There's nothing about the name Spot that screams out "honor student", but there's definitely something about naming your kid Spot that says Spot is coming from a shallow gene pool.

Now I hope there aren't parents in this country that actually name their kids Spot, and it's not because I'm afraid of offending anyone, it's a bad name. You don't necessarily have to give a kid a special or unique name, or even a unique spelling, just don't give them a bad one. If you're going to be one of those beauty pageant moms, don't name your daughter Gertrude. If you want want your son to be an intellectual, don't name him Butch. If you don't want your son to be a NASCAR junkie, don't name him Billy Joe Bob. It's pretty simple. If you're not sure what you want, name your kid a stock name like Mike or Kristen. Sure they could go in any direction with a normal name, but at least it's not YOUR fault. See, certain names lead to certain assumptions, and while it may not be fair, this is something that a parent can control. It's unfortunate how often I've seen parents fail at this important responsibility.

I met a girl named Charity, and she's pretty much a walking punchline. I don't really know anything about her but I did find out later that her reputation is pretty much on point with her name. Am I saying she wouldn't be promiscuous if her name WASN'T Charity. Absolutely not. Do I think her name being Charity pretty much made it inevitable? Pretty much.

I think people get their name changed because they want to change their fate. My friend Chris divulged to me the information that he was born Chris, but when he was 5, demanded his parents change his name to Christopher because it should be his choice to decide if the name should be shortened or not. Surprisingly, he's not an anal retentive bastard, but I'm sure if he made everyone call him Christopher, he would be. Would just being Chris have led him down another path in life? Apparently at the age of 5, he thought it would.

Probably the most practical name change I've heard about came from a guy named Mike. His legal name was Richard, which is a fine name, but his last name made things problematic. See, his full name was Richard Hancock which translates to Dick Hancock. It's really one of those cases where you wonder what his parents were thinking, if they were thinking at all.

My best friend was born Jang-Soo Lee. Jang-Soo is a Korean name and it was the name that I knew him by until he turned 18. It's not that turning 18 made him want to change his name, it's that turning 18 meant he was going to go to college. Now, he's not one of those weird kids who think that going to a new place means they can be someone different, with a new identity, but he's one of those kids who has to teach people how to pronounce his name correctly and gets frustrated when the International Students department starts sending him e-mails assuming he's not from the States (born and raised in Minnesota). See, Jang-Soo went to a private school from 1st grade to 12th, so his name was not an issue since he was at the same school with a lot of the same kids, so when he hit college and found out he had to teach people his name, he became Bruce. Bruce Lee.

I went to visit Bruce in Fairfax, Virginia a couple of years ago. We went to karaoke with his roommates a couple of his friends. I was told that someone was coming by the name of Harry. Harry Wang. To be fair, he was from China and "Wang" is actually pronounced "Wong", but you know, that's not going to stop Bruce and I from giggling uncontrollably. Harry was a nice guy but obviously did not understand why Bruce and I were in such good spirits over the course of the night. Songs were sung, much fun was had, and the car ride back was kind of a surreal experience as I realized I was sitting next to a Bruce Lee and a Harry Wang.