RE: Appellation - A micro-fiction story
Haha. thanks.
I clarify about my name. It's not that it means that, it's just that it sounds similar to,
for instance: José les ama = José loves you
"les" being the objective pronoun, only in Spanish it goes before the verb instead of after, as in it in English.
Dolor means pain, Dolores is plural. All the Dolores I knew had to deal with the question, What hurts you today? or the complete-the-phrase game.
What about if you marry a guy whose family name is Cabeza (head), you'll be literally: Dolores de Cabeza (headaches) :)
My father's middle name was Dolores (José Dolores Lezama). He was a national guard and i think he became one to hide behind his last name (which wasn't exactly the best for the military, let's face it). Theoretically, noone would be calling his middle name, just the last name (there are stories of military guys whose neighbors never knew their first names). Well his fellow national guard buddies purposefully called him José Dolores when they got together. He ended up liking it. He decided to return the favor by becoming a pain in their asses when it came to supervisions.
@hlezama :) .. José?
HaHa!! Marvelous! That is somewhat of a backing up the whole naming issue!
Doesn't it also teach people to adapt some humor about their names during a life time? From a spiritual perspective one can say that one gets the name one deserves. If it is a provokative name than the learning lays within developing an attitude which gets along with this inheritance. I mean, for how long does one want to growl about the parents?
Also, it shows how attached people really are to their names, may they be bad or good. When one "wears" a good name, like that one of a saint or emperor he also attaches his identity to it and it would really hurt him to be named otherwise.
It's the same as with being praised for beauty or "intense blue eyes". People get used to this identifications and then become really really sad and depressed once this compliments start to vanish.
A funny name giving story I often tell which is that after the birth of my older sister my mom told my dad to go to the registration and make the name official. Actually my sister should have been given my name (Erika) but my dad forgot it on the way to the office. The women behind the counter recommended "Sir, how about "Irene", isn't that a beautiful name?" And he nodded and that was it. My mom was not amused. :)
Hahaha. Good story. I know some stories like those. "mistakes" at the time of naming can be really funny.
I'm not sure about the theory of predestination (getting "the name one deserves"), but the name may infuses personality traits associated with its meaning or the person it honors. However I know lots of people whose personality goes all the other way. People named Jesus are anything but holy (i had an uncle who was a trickster and my younger brother has followed those steps).
My late uncle, Andrés, was actually named Carmen Andrés. How much humor can a boy adapt to his name when he is named after a girl, never mind she was a holy virgin? (La Virgen del Carmen, one of the many Marian adcovacies). He ended up changing his name to Andrés del Carmen (you can't disrespect the virgin so much as to totally reject her name).
Glad, that you had a good laugh, as well :-))
With name "deserving" - I mean it more in the sense that the universe gives you only the tasks (names) you can handle. If one choses not to handle it then it becomes difficult.
Changing name because of not wanting to be laughed at, is one solution. If one is a really cool person, there is also the chance to take on a humorous way with ones name and stay content with it.
LOL. So in the case with your uncle, I think he made an elegant choice ;-)
He sure did. He did have a sense of humor too.
I love that this post launched such interesting conversations! You two are quite the philosophers!
Haha. Thank you for prompting the conversation.
Oh my gosh, this is such an education! Thank you for all the interesting details. Names really can have a big impact on a person’s life. It’s one reason so many people struggle to choose names for their kids when they are expecting.
That’s such an interesting story about your father.
Thank YOU, @jayna for giving me the prompt, sort of, that allowed me to bring him back (at least for a while).
Talking about the people we've lost helps to keep their memory alive. I do the same with my parents. Both gone too soon.
Sorry about that. You have inspired me to write about my father. I'll prepare a post on him. I think that ironically he went a bit too late. He lived long enough to see himself unneeded, disrespected, ignored by many.
Oh that is sad. I was grateful my parents didn’t have a long lingering decline. That did happen with my father-in-law and it is hard to bear.