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July 30, 2008
Why my name is awesome -or- Why is my name awesome?
I had a strange dream last night that involved large shoes and people messing up my name (neither of which are unusual in my life since I do have large feet for a woman and people screw up my name all the time). When I woke up, though, my name was on my mind.
My name has always been special to me. When I was born, my parents were going to name me Kimberly. My mother took one look at me and decided that I was not a Kimberly (nor were my parents particularly fond of the abbreviation of the name, "Kim"). So dad ran to the hospital gift store and got a baby name book. I was Baby Girl for about 24 hours until they came across "Carissa." The "C" wasn't good enough for my parents, though, so I was to be named "Karissa."
(This often leads me to tell another story about names in my family, which is decidedly a better oral story than written for reasons that will become obvious as you read... My older sister is Katrina, and my younger brother is Jacob. When my youngest brother was born, my parents named him Caleb. The "k" sound made me think it would be spelled "Kaleb," so my little 6 year-old self made a birthday card that said "Happy birthday, Kaleb!" When my mother told me his name was being spelled with a "C," I got upset because I knew the agony of having people spell my name wrong... and I had done it on the very first thing I ever made for him!)
My name is awesome for a lot of reasons. Sure, the story of how my parents got my name is pretty cool, but I also like my name because it's not like very many other names. What strikes me most is that there are no male equivalents, so to speak. You know what I mean--Daniel and Danielle, Dennis and Denise, Michael and Michelle, Patrick and Patricia, Francis and Frances. (Are all of those French equivalents?) Maybe that's why I've never really cared for any of the female versions of those names... The male ones are fine. I like names best when they're unique. Names like Jennifer, Sarah, and Bridget are good, and don't have male equivalents... but they're common. Not that there's anything wrong with having a common name. I just don't think I'd be the same person if my name was, say, Kimberly.
Once when I was younger I heard my mother say that she really didn't like the name Nancy, that she'd never met anyone named Nancy that she liked. I thought that was strange. To be honest, I've never felt that way about any name. I've met Melissas that I did and did not like, Jessicas that were friendly and not so friendly, Lauras that were sweet as can be and just not sweet at all. Is is possible that a name can give us characteristics or that everyone with a certain name possesses qualities associated with said name? Would I be the same person if my name was Kimberly? Certainly I wouldn't be as aware of my name being misspelled...
And who thinks about names this way? Older people? Younger people? Women? Men? Why did my mother have these thoughts about the name Nancy when I can't seem to equate them with any one name in my own mind?
Also, when I was much younger, I used to wonder what it would be like to be older and have my name. To me, my name seemed like a young person's name. Older people had names like Agnes and Ingrid and Margaret. I wondered what it would be like to be applying for jobs with my name. Now that I've done that and actually been hired, I know that it's probably not much different... except perhaps my name is either 1) harder or 2) easier to remember because it is rather different. I wondered what it would be like to be an old lady named Karissa in a rocking chair. Will I act similar to the Agneses and Ingrids and Margarets? Why does my name still seem to make me feel younger than I am?
Lots of questions. Feel free to weigh in if you have any thoughts or experiences with names. I'm interested to know and I have a feeling I'll be pondering the subject for awhile... The rest of me is still wondering why I dreamed about big shoes.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at July 30, 2008 11:38 AM