A local friend has decided she wants to be called by her proper given name rather than a diminutive. I think it's a great idea as the diminutive evokes a young girl while she's a beautiful, wise, mature woman.
Her decision got me thinking about names and what they mean to us.
If I had been a boy I'd have been called Christian, after my youngest uncle, who's only six years older than I. Not sure I'd have been that much happier with Christian than with Margret, which I hated while growing up. Hard to enumerate the many ways of vilifying the name of Margret in Bernese-speaking Switzerland!
I did eventually get over the disappointment of not being called Soraya or Jacqueline or a similar, much fancier name than the one handed down from maternal grandmother's mother to maternal grandmother to mother. That was probably at roughly the time of Princess Margaret's glamorous wedding to Lord Snowdon. I remember that quite well: it felt as if Switzerland had adopted the couple in lieu of the queen or king our forebears fought so hard to get rid of.
Another reason why I have become reconciled to my given name is the fact that it goes back to the Greek word for pearl and is probably much more ancient. And I love the big bulls-eye daisy, which in German is also called Margerite.
Coming to Scotland, I've been surprised to find how very popular the name is – we're a "giggle" of Margarets here in Oban! It's not really surprising, as 11th century Scotland had a queen of Hungarian origin called Margaret, who became St. Margaret. (Edinburgh Castle has a beautiful, intimate chapel dedicated to her, the oldest building in all of Edinburgh.) So, in that sense, as in many other senses, I've really come home.
Do men ever envy women for the option to change family name at marriage? Input from you guys?
In Switzerland, men have been able to opt for adopting their bride's last name. (Doing a bit of research to back up my statement, I've come across the fact that a move is currently under way to even the score: in future, everyone is to keep their given and family names for life. Married couples are to decide on their children's family name at the birth of their first child. For more on this, see http://www.parlament.ch/e/mm/2006/pages/mm_2006-11-24_999_03.aspx – sadly only in French, German, Italian -- evidently, the issue has not been deemed of sufficient international interest to be translated into English).
In other societies, of course, different names are given or adopted at different stages of life. But that's a whole other story that I don't have time to explore further just now.
To round this off, I'm probably flouting all the copyright laws in the world by copying this photo here -- just in from a friend and it seems to be making the rounds. So if the creator of this fab cartoon wants to get in touch, please do so!
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