Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Family Names

It's common for mothers to give their children names that reflect special family members or other branches of the clan. My middle name, for example, is The Beast's maiden name.

What is uncommon, however, is for mothers to entirely forget their children's names--constantly.

Throughout the course of my life, I have never heard my mother call me by the correct name on the first try.

If I ever heard "Jaco...Ben" (commonly rendered Jake-Ben) shouted down the hallway, chances were I was needed for something. Typically, however, it sounded more like this:

"Jacob! [silence] Hey Jake! [more silence] Ben?!"

As you might imagine, Jake's standard name was "Ben-Jake."

Things really became disasterous when we got our dog, Anna.

Adding a third name to mix was basically the same as providing Jake and I with middle names.

Now, in addition to "Ben" being rendered a surname, my full title was "Jake-Anna-Ben."

It's common usage was:

"Jake! [silence] Anna! [the dog walks into the room, confused] Go away! Jake! [more silence] Ben?!"

It would have been degrading were it not so ridiculous.

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