What's In A Name

Being the 7th child, I am sure my parents had to be creative to come up with yet another name for yet another child. I was named Alice Lucille Swanson after my two grandmothers. When my gender was announced in the waiting room at the hospital, my sister, who had been the only girl with 5 brothers, modified my name a little and dubbed me “AlleyLuYa!” Still today she calls me Alley Lu. As I continue to study my life, I realized that over the years I have had many different names. Papa called me “Logi”, which, according to him is Chinese for Lucy. I knew when he called me Logi, we were off on an errand by ourselves. I do miss hearing that name. Mary Claire was called Big Tut by all of our brothers, therefore I was Little Tut. That name brings memories of Navasota, Texas. On many occasions I was just referred to as Number 7. After having four kids of my own, I understand a little better how that was an understandable and quite logical name. As a teacher, I was called Miss, Mrs. Farmer, and even LuDogg! Those are just the names of which I was aware. I am sure there were many more. My kids would call me Mom or Mo..om (where it was a long drawn out name with a couple of syllables). Now that my kids are on their own, I love to answer the phone and hear either version coming through loud and clear. One of my favorite names is Bobbye. That is what my grandchildren call me. After learning the news that I was to be a grandmother, I decided that Bobbye would be my name. Its origin has no roots or ties and I have no idea where it came from, but James and I became Big J and Bobbye. The name still makes me smile, especially when I hear it emanating from a small, sweet child. When my kids want to remind me of all the really good things that still surround me, or if they want me to focus more on what it is that I am trying to discover on this new journey that I have been forced on, or if they think that I just need to breathe deeply, they just call me punkin’. That endearment has held a magic for many years. It was the name James always used for me. Its powers included love, patience, confidence and fulfillment. Today it acts as a balm. What power there is in a name. It all depends on who is doing the calling.
Although my official name is Alice Lucille, I was most often called Lucy. That proved to be a little troublesome in school. I always dreaded the first days of school when the teacher would look at the roll and see Alice and actually say that name out loud! For some reason, that was most embarrassing. I guess maybe I suffered some so that when I was a teacher I would know what not to do on the first day of school. I am not sure why the name was an embarrassment. There really was no logical reason that I can think of. Even with the embarrassment, though, I never once thought of changing my name. Now, my brother Bill had a different story. Bill was a child that my mother swears woke up smiling and happy every single day of his life. His enthusiasm for life was, and is boundless. He did not play the Lone Ranger……he became the Lone Ranger. He did not participate in football…..he lived the sport. When he attended the University of Texas, I have no doubt that had he been cut, his blood would have been burnt orange. Knowing our brother, when Bill came home to visit on one occasion and told us to call him Timber, it was not all that strange. He informed us that he was just trying out that name for awhile. So, we called him Timber, and he smiled. A few months later, we learned that his name was no longer Bill, nor was it Timber. My brother had officially changed his name to Walden. The way we were all informed of the change was almost as unique as his new name. The week that Bill had paid money to have his name changed, several other things happened as well. My father had a heart attack and was rushed to Dallas and put in the Intensive Care Unit. All eleven children hurried to the hospital from all over the country. (Several times we jokingly accused Papa of having these heart attacks just to get everyone to come home!) Pat even rushed home from his honeymoon. Now, no one but James and I knew that Pat was on his honeymoon because he had eloped the night before the heart attack, and he was honeymooning on our lake lot. As we all gathered in the waiting room and made our visits to ICU at the specified times, we learned more news. Papa’s basket factory had caught fire and much of the business was destroyed. We struggled with how and when to tell Papa all of this news. It was decided that since he was hooked up to the monitors, we should probably tell him all of the latest happenings as we electronically observed his heart rate. If we saw that there was too much of a strain, the announcements would cease. First, my Mom and Martin went in to tell him about the basket factory. We all gathered around the monitor in the nurses’ station to gauge his reaction to this setback. The heart rate remained steady after receiving the news. His response was predictable….he would start the business again and make it better. Next, Pat and Mom informed Papa that he had another daughter-in-law. Again, a little blip on the monitor, but nothing that would invite more worry. Papa opened his arms to the latest addition to the family. Next Walden and Mom went in to tell Papa that he could now officially call his 5th child Walden. That is when the heart rate jumped! A name change. Papa gently explained to Walden that they had named him William Reynolds after some people that meant a great deal to them, and that Bill had always been one of his favorite names. Bill enlightened Papa that the name Walden was chosen because it most closely reflected the social and environmental issues, among other criteria, that were very important to him. Bill paused a moment and in his own gentle way explained that if Papa really, really liked the name Bill……then for $29.50 he could officially change his name to Bill! That is all it had cost for him to change his name to Walden. It took a minute, but the heart rate settled back into a nice rhythm, Papa smiled, and Bill officially became Walden for real.
My kids never officially changed their names but they do not all go by their given names either. We went for Kathryn’s open house during her second grade year, and her teacher kept talking about a child named Katie. Thinking she was a little confused as to who our child was, I finally told her that our daughter’s name was Kathryn. She looked a little puzzled herself, and then laughed and said that Kathryn told her that she was to be called Katie. That was the first we had ever heard of that and probably the last time we ever called her Kathryn. I was determined when my son was born to use the name Swanson, so our youngest child was named James Swanson Farmer. The child was called many different names, none of them being James or Swanson. I guess it was a little confusing with two James’s in the house and so many Swanson’s around, so his sisters started calling him Bud. I fought this name tooth and nail and corrected everyone who used it. I guess my influence was not that strong, or either the name was just entirely fitting, because James Swanson is well known today as Bud Farmer. Kristin and Emily both tried out different names for awhile but I think they realized they would be more different if they just kept their real names! My brother’s son, Sean, has followed in his uncle’s footsteps. He is now officially Moon. For years I have called my niece, Colin, “Monique”. When she was young, her ambition was to be a star and this name change was her first step. I think I am the only one that still calls her Monique today, but the name just fits. The list of names goes on and on. All one has to do is throw out a name when our family is gathered and more than likely, someone is either presently going by that name, has gone by that name, is married to someone with that name, or will soon give birth to someone with that name. A response is bound to come when a name is called. The names in our family include several duplicates which may cause outsiders a little confusion. We have the Marys: Mary Grace, Mary Claire, Mary, Mary Claudia, and Mary Caroline. There are several versions of Hunter (four times in 3 generations) with H, Hunty, and Huntington being sported by several family members and both genders. My Dad’s name was Jarrett Cook and therefore there are many Cooks in the family including the varieties of Cookie, Big Cookie, Little Cookie, and Cookie III. I won’t even start on the other nicknames in the family, as they are endless. We relish dishing all of this out when a new person is introduced just to see their reactions. Even with all of this name calling, Grace and Sallie had it pretty simple. Although all of us were named after someone important in the lives of my parents, these last two children had no middle names. Either they ran out of important people or they just got tired. I will have to say that even today I am a little jealous of my younger sisters and their names. After all, on the first day of school Grace and Sallie always got to be just Grace and Sallie.
With most people in my family wanting to be a little like Walden, several of us decided to go by different names in the summertime only. There was nothing official and I guess we did this… just because. No other family that we knew of had “summer names”. The whole premise was silly but seemed to catch on like wild fire. Brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews all got into the spirit. When summer would come around, many of us would simply go by a different name. Our summer name. These names all had to be approved by the summer name committee and they had to truly fit its recipient. The names were varied and made absolutely no sense at all. The phone lines would light up continuously until the perfect summer names were obtained for everyone. My summer name was Valeria Corrine. Other titles were Oscar, Correta, Olga, Hugh, Parmenta Jane, Erwin sometimes Otto, Moose, Lemonade, Herbert, and Fannie Mae Claire just to name a few. Sallie was called Sasha Shane. (She went by that in the summer, but because she was the baby of the family, for the rest of the year she was simply called “The Queen”.) Summer names wreaked even more havoc for those poor people that would try to learn the names in the family. Our given names were pretty strange to begin with, then you throw in some nicknames, and you hear a few summer names being tossed about and it was almost impossible for an outsider to get a grip on things. I remember one day several girls rode their bicycles in our driveway to catch a glimpse of the ongoing basketball game in the back. They giggled for awhile and made some pointing motions and finally called me over. They asked me to show them which one of the boys was Peanut. They had heard that he was really cute. I looked over at the group playing ball. Mentally I went through the list of names that were either given at birth, officially changed, or used on a part time basis, and I could not think of anyone named Peanut. I told the girls that there was no Peanut on the basketball court. They giggled a little more and admitted that the name was just a guess. They had heard that I had some really cute brothers. They also understood that some of the names were kind of different and maybe sounded something like food names. Slowly I turned back to the court and saw my brothers in a whole new light. The Swansons had a new avenue of names to explore and I could not wait to get started!
When a child is born there is much thought put into the name that will remain with the infant through the rest of his or her life. Well, at least remain with them until they can afford the cost of changing their name. Walden’s name change showed who he was and what he cared about. Today as my daughter Kristin gets ready to give birth to my first grandchild to be born after James’ death, I understand her desire to use the name James for her daughter. What strength of character she will have if she takes after her namesake. Even with much forethought there are times when a name just does not accurately depict a person or personality. Thus, nicknames are born. Instantly we know so much about a person from this more personal title. My mother has often been called Mother Superior. And, this she was dubbed by a priest. I don’t think anymore description of my mom is necessary as the name says it all. My favorite name for my mom is one that I have tried to adapt for myself. When asked how she has survived all of the emotion, the upheaval, the worry, the scurry, and the shear stamina that it took to run her household everyday, she said, “Just call me a Teflon skillet…..I just let it slide right off!” I think I may look into officially changing my name. Lucy Teflon Skillet Swanson Farmer. It would cost $29.50, but, oh what a bargain if it worked! Sometimes it is all about what’s in the name.