Appellation - A micro-fiction story
Source: Pixabay image by sasint
Appellation
Rainy sat at the water’s edge. Why had they named her that? The teasing hurt.
Lily and Star skipped down the grassy hill to join her. “Why are you so blue, Rainy?”
She stood, stretched toward sunlight breaking through gray clouds, and grinned. “That’s not my name anymore. It’s Sunny.”
This is my story for the current 50-word short story challenge. The prompt is "water."
Do you ever wonder what's in a name?
There are many studies out there on the relationship between names and personalities, names and facial features, and even names and genetics. This little story postulates nothing, but tiptoes along the same path as the discussions around the importance of naming and its impact on our lives.
In writing this story, I imagined that the parents lovingly chose names for their children from nature, naming one child “Star,” one “Lily” and one “Rainy,” But perhaps they didn't realize how very different these choices are. Star is a bright and opulent name that can signify someone who achieves greatness. Lily, a type of flower, signifies beauty and grace. Rainy, though a beautiful name, could suggest gloom or sadness.
Teased for her name at school, Rainy chooses to remake herself by choosing a name that is the opposite of the one given to her at birth. Along with it, she sheds her sadness.
I have known quite a few people who have either changed their name to something they felt better suited who they wanted to be, or adopted a different version of their name. I won't mention anyone in particular, here. But it's along the lines of someone growing up as "Bobby" and pronouncing upon becoming an adult that everyone must henceforth refer to him as "Robert."
So names certainly do seem to have importance. What do you think?
Thank you for reading!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2018/09/08/appellation-a-micro-fiction-story/
As I have progressively discovered who I am, I've come to revise my own name a few times. For a while I was "Designer," but I ultimately recognized that my field of interest is broader than that. And thus I became known as "creator."
Here on Steemit, that's been shortened to "@creatr," because someone staked out "@creator" before I arrived. Sadly, that account has been abandoned, or at least is not posting any longer... :O Wish I had that Steem power!
In case I never explained this before: I'm not in competition with "The Creator..." It's just that I so admire his handiwork that I want to imitate him to the greatest extent possible. ;)
Jayna, you are so right... There is a lot that goes into a name! :D
😄😇😄
So much great information right there! Thank you for your thoughtful response. I had no idea why you chose "@creatr" instead of "@creator." Wow. Who abandons a cool Steemit handle like that? But at any rate, the one you have is very cool... certainly more unique. And you have a story to tell.
This post was upvoted and resteemed by @thethreehugs. Thank you for your support!
Thank you!
You are welcome!
That sounds.
It as well is a reminder not too much identitying with the names given to us. Not only how we are called every day but as well as clinging to ones nation, profession, race or gender. The more I identify with my tags the more it hurts when one starts to badmouth them.
So my suggestion would be rather to change the given name to re-integrate what is given in the first place as positive characteristics.
"Rainy" represents rain and therefore it's something which is needed by plants and animals and humans. After a great heat rain is more than welcomed. It also represents wetness and tears but then again this is just one characteristic of the various traits a person has.
No single term or tag describes the wholeness of a human or another living being. Integration of shadow and light, of cold and hot, male and female does give relief how one perceives the self, no?
So true. We are all complex beings, with complicated emotions and things that make us who we are. If we feel ruled by any one thing, it is simply short-sightedness. Sometimes it is tiresome to be complex. I look at a cat, sleeping in the sun, and think about how sweet it would be to have only napping and prowling and playing to worry about! But all in all, we are blessed to be sentient, emotional people who can feel and love so deeply.
yes most names have a reason I was named after the flower of my father's birth month (April) and of course the purple in my username is may fave color and the number is my age when I joined lol
That’s so neat! Thank you for sharing the story of your name!
I love this story, @jayna. It has so much meaning for me. My son’s name was changed later in life because he said that I gave him a girl’s name. My daughter kept her name, but is named after a famous singer. When you get older, you think better of some of the decisions you made when you were younger and full of colorful cute ideas. LOL
Thank you for sharing that, @pyemoney! In a way it’s odd to pick names for babies, don’t you think? I remember when my babies were “on board” thinking, “How can I choose your name? I don’t yet know who you are!”
Great story, @jayna. I think that name calling starts at name giving. Some parents should be put behind bars for giving it-begs-the-question names to their children. In spanish names can be hillarious (despite their religious origin) or very insulting (Dolores, Caridad, Remedios, Pipe, Enecio, Zacarías. etc). And when combined with certain last names, the results can be outrageous.
Aquiles Castro, for instance. sounds like "here i castrate you..."
Luz Rojas (Red light)
Alan Brito Delgado (little thin wire)
or even mine
Henrry Lezama (henrry loves you) :)
Oh wow, you have an awesome name, @hlezama!
By the way, what is wrong with Dolores?
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!
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.
I read somewhere that Native Americans changed their names as they grew up. You're never the person you were as a child, so it makes sense.
I like how didn't let her name determine who she was going to be anymore.
Interesting! Yes, I’ve often thought that’s it’s amazing when a name manages to fit a person for a lifetime. A funny example of one that doesn’t is Bambi. He appears as a big powerful buck at the end of the movie!
Another thing that amuses me is meeting older people named things like Horace or Marvin and trying to imagine them being babies with those names. 😊
Excellent job @jayna... A name can be so defining... We did a lot of humming and hawing with our recent addition to the family.. We got there eventually and now I couldn't imagine him called anything else...
You're write up also reminded my of this classic Johnny Cash song :o)
Ha ha! Thank you for that, @ablaze! What a great song. I haven't heard it for quite a while, so it was great fun to refresh my memory.
I think that's really true that people grow into their names. I'm glad you are happy with the name you chose for your little one!
Ha ha, You cant beat a bit of Johnny Cash! Some boyo in his day... His version of 'Hurt', a Nine Inhc Nails song is very very good, as well as very very sad... Check it out if you've never heard it..
Thanks for the kind words about our little man :o)