by Pa Rock
or Rocky B.
My sister telephoned yesterday while I was pulling weeds in the garden, and I was grateful for the good excuse to get out of the sun for a few minutes. We weren't very far into our visit when she broke the rhythm of the conversation and said "I have something to tell you."
Uh oh, I thought. Here it comes. (Though I had no idea of what was coming.)
My sister (and only sibling) then blurted out that she was changing her name. That, by itself, was not an earth-shattering pronouncement because she has changed her last name a couple of times over the years - through marriage and divorce - so my first thought was that she was getting married, even though I had not heard of her recently dating anyone. But no, she wasn't getting married, and she wasn't changing her last name. My ever-adventurous sister said that she was headed to court the next day to officially change her first name. She said that she had never liked her first name and was going to change it to a name she liked. The new name is actually a variant on the old one.
Out of respect for her privacy I will not reveal my sister's old or new name, but most of the few people who read this blog on a regular basis at least know who she was for the past sixty-several years.
My sister said that changing names is a relatively simple process. A circuit judge has to bang a gavel, and the two states where she has spent most of her life also have to check their records and grant approval - probably to insure that she has no pending legal or business matters that would be negatively impacted by the name change.
So now I am thinking that maybe I should change my name.
I never liked "Rocky" growing up, feeling that it was more of a nickname than an actual name that a professional person might have painted on their office door. And then when I was in high school there was the whole "Rocky and Bullwinkle" thing which got old quickly. But I never tried to morph it into anything else, and now, as an old codger, I feel like it sort of suits me.
My middle name, "Gene," however, is another matter. The classier version, "Eugene," ran in the family for three generations. One of my g-g-grandfathers was Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard, my paternal grandfather was Charles Eugene Macy, and my dad was Garland Eugene Macy. But I was tagged with just plain Gene.
"Gene" is appropriate for me in one respect. My primary pastime is the shaking of family trees or "genealogy," a mixture of personal history and biology that each day develops a stronger reliance on the study of DNA and the exploration of one's genes and chromosomes.
But even with that genealogy connection, I would still give up my middle name for an appropriate replacement. Choosing a new name, however, is a bit of a challenge. I would like something unusual and inspirational.. One that I am considering, with a nod to Rocky and Bullwinkle, is "Upsidaisium." (Google it.). That would make my initials form the word "Rum," which could make for some fun labeling.
A second choice, also with cultural roots, would be "Horror," with a strong tip of the hat to Tim Curry whose Dr. Frankenfurter built a man in his laboratory and named him "Rocky." That Rocky was a sweet and vulnerable person who was about as far from a "horror" as a created being could get.
The very best fit for a new middle name also comes from the movies. I am thinking about paying tribute to Sly Stallone and changing my middle name to "Balboa."
As an aside in support of the choice of "Balboa" as my possible new middle name, I have an old tee-shirt what features Stallone doing his boxer thing with his fists raised in the air, and the word "Rocky" directly below his image. I wore that shirt to a medical appointment last Tuesday. The nurse who prepared me for an office surgery was fascinated with the shirt. "That's Rocky Balboa," she said. "Were you named after him?"
No dear, I wasn't. Not yet, anyway!
or Rocky B.
My sister telephoned yesterday while I was pulling weeds in the garden, and I was grateful for the good excuse to get out of the sun for a few minutes. We weren't very far into our visit when she broke the rhythm of the conversation and said "I have something to tell you."
Uh oh, I thought. Here it comes. (Though I had no idea of what was coming.)
My sister (and only sibling) then blurted out that she was changing her name. That, by itself, was not an earth-shattering pronouncement because she has changed her last name a couple of times over the years - through marriage and divorce - so my first thought was that she was getting married, even though I had not heard of her recently dating anyone. But no, she wasn't getting married, and she wasn't changing her last name. My ever-adventurous sister said that she was headed to court the next day to officially change her first name. She said that she had never liked her first name and was going to change it to a name she liked. The new name is actually a variant on the old one.
Out of respect for her privacy I will not reveal my sister's old or new name, but most of the few people who read this blog on a regular basis at least know who she was for the past sixty-several years.
My sister said that changing names is a relatively simple process. A circuit judge has to bang a gavel, and the two states where she has spent most of her life also have to check their records and grant approval - probably to insure that she has no pending legal or business matters that would be negatively impacted by the name change.
So now I am thinking that maybe I should change my name.
I never liked "Rocky" growing up, feeling that it was more of a nickname than an actual name that a professional person might have painted on their office door. And then when I was in high school there was the whole "Rocky and Bullwinkle" thing which got old quickly. But I never tried to morph it into anything else, and now, as an old codger, I feel like it sort of suits me.
My middle name, "Gene," however, is another matter. The classier version, "Eugene," ran in the family for three generations. One of my g-g-grandfathers was Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard, my paternal grandfather was Charles Eugene Macy, and my dad was Garland Eugene Macy. But I was tagged with just plain Gene.
"Gene" is appropriate for me in one respect. My primary pastime is the shaking of family trees or "genealogy," a mixture of personal history and biology that each day develops a stronger reliance on the study of DNA and the exploration of one's genes and chromosomes.
But even with that genealogy connection, I would still give up my middle name for an appropriate replacement. Choosing a new name, however, is a bit of a challenge. I would like something unusual and inspirational.. One that I am considering, with a nod to Rocky and Bullwinkle, is "Upsidaisium." (Google it.). That would make my initials form the word "Rum," which could make for some fun labeling.
A second choice, also with cultural roots, would be "Horror," with a strong tip of the hat to Tim Curry whose Dr. Frankenfurter built a man in his laboratory and named him "Rocky." That Rocky was a sweet and vulnerable person who was about as far from a "horror" as a created being could get.
The very best fit for a new middle name also comes from the movies. I am thinking about paying tribute to Sly Stallone and changing my middle name to "Balboa."
As an aside in support of the choice of "Balboa" as my possible new middle name, I have an old tee-shirt what features Stallone doing his boxer thing with his fists raised in the air, and the word "Rocky" directly below his image. I wore that shirt to a medical appointment last Tuesday. The nurse who prepared me for an office surgery was fascinated with the shirt. "That's Rocky Balboa," she said. "Were you named after him?"
No dear, I wasn't. Not yet, anyway!
1 comment:
I'm curious to hear the new name. Congrats to her!
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