Names Are Effective and Important

My dad, many years ago, before I was born had some money. He bought some stock with a name on it that appealed to him emotionally. He let it sit in the safe deposit box and when I married Jerry, he told Jerry he still had the paper, all these years. We checked it out and it had changed names and through the years had multiplied and was worth in the 1960’s, about sixty thousand dollars. Dad had probably paid about several hundred dollars for it, because he liked the name of the company.

When it was finally cashed in about 1960, he had passed away and Mom had some extra security that she had only become aware of then. Names mean different things to various people. Parents name their children a name that they like. Many children do not like their given name and ask mom and dad, why did you name me that?

I have an unusual first name and I disliked it until I was eighteen. Then a magical thing occurred and all of a sudden, I loved it. I could call up on the phone and say this is Elita, not even giving a last name. I could sign a register at an office and say Elita and no last name. I vowed that I would name my children regular names as I called them. So I did.

Jewish people name their newborns the name of a deceased loved one. If you had a grandmother named Sarah and you had a baby girl, you could name it Sarah or Sharon or Sophia or Sally... The reason behind it was to have the deceased finally rest in peace, because they were remembered. We also give the child a Hebrew name which was the deceased’s name. For instance, Sarah in Hebrew would be Sura, so the child is Sarah in English and Sura in Hebrew. The Hebrew name is used for certain occasions like birth, confirmation, marriage and death. Then the Hebrew name along with the English name is recited.

Now days, the young folks will name their child Sura in Hebrew but in English they will name her Ashley or Courtney or Madeleine. They do not stick with the same initial as they did in my time. So names change and customs change and attitudes change. However, the meaning is the same, still naming after a beloved and deceased person. You hope that the new baby will be the same kind of person as was named for, good, dear and smart. You would never name the child after a relative or friend that you detested.

My mother’s brother and his wife had a baby girl and the day before she was born, my uncle lost his sister. So the daughter was named after the father’s sister who had died the day before. Her name was Elizabeth and so the baby girl became Elizabeth, but they tacked on the name of a relative who had lived to be ninety, as the second name- Lois. The reason being that the first Elizabeth, the sister had died at an early age of thirty-eight and the new parents wanted to insure that their Elizabeth lived the long life of the second relative Lois.

When we ballroom dance, we learn the names of the dances. Some of the dances have sweet names and other dances have stronger names. The Paso Double really sounds quite Spanish and elicits the feeling in you that you are in Spain and you are performing before the crowds and though there is no bull there, one can conjure up the bull’s photo in their mind. The Rumba signifies the romance of this Latin time and makes one feel a bit sexy. We named our second dog, a Pekingese Rumba.

The Bolero sounds like a piece of clothing, but it is not. The Bolero is a form of the Rumba and it also can be very sexy. The Waltz is something that one thinks of as doing at a wedding, as a first dance. Ballroom dancers know that waltzes are a really neat and lovely dance to do especially with someone you care about. The Swing makes one feel young again especially if your age is senior time. The Cha Cha evokes memories of having fun and movement and exercise. The Tango is known as a dance of love and controlled movement and very theatrical. My husband and I way back in the early eighties were advocates of the Hustle. We would go to the Hustle night spots and dance all evening nonstop and only sitting down for a light dinner or a drink. I wonder how we lasted dancing nonstop, though of course we were forty years younger at that time.

Did you ever wonder if the dance steps in the Hustle had been called the Waltz, how we would react to a dance called that with the energetic steps of the Hustle? Suppose the Cha Cha had been called the Viennese Waltz. How would our bodies be moving at that pace? If the Foxtrot had been called the Paso, would it have been as dignified?

So names evoke, stimulate, arouse and waken thoughts in our minds and bodies. Girls with male names (which are somewhat popular now) must have a hard time trying to be feminine. Girls named Sydney stir up masculine thoughts in my mind. I knew a man named Sydney in my working days and he was a wimp and or a nerd. He was nice and polite, but if I meet a girl named Sydney, I see him. Of course, that is silly, but true.

Doctors cannot have a wimpy name because the patients will react negatively to them and not become their patient.  A doctor I knew many years ago had a rhyming name. His mom thought it funny to give him a name like Terry Cherry. When his name was called over the intercom at the hospital, patients and medical personnel always smiled. He was a great doctor, but his name created fun and snickers. I had an endodontist (specialist in root canal work) whose name was Dr. Brave. Surely, one has to be brave when he goes to the dentist for a difficult tooth problem.

There was a florist here in Baltimore, Maryland whose real name was Don Flowers. Very appropriate. There was an auction house company here called Dance Auctioneers. The owner's name was Jim Dance. That would be cute for a ballroom dance teacher. There was a gym teacher whose name was Lionel Run. He did like to participate in running marathons. There was a street here named Jury Lane. Many lawyers happened to live on that lane. There was a development here called Pill Hill because many doctors and pharmacists lived there. Names can stand for something you live near, something you work at etc.

Names can affect how we dress. If we have a masculine name and we are female, perhaps we think of our self as not so girly or womanly. If we have a meek name, we may appear in our mind as meek when we really are strong. The same thing happens when we dance. If our teacher, by chance says “today you are really dancing like Ginger,” we all of a sudden become Ginger and our shoulders react and our feet fall into place and we float off and down the floor. If our teacher says “today, you are really dancing like a wallflower, then we become that wallflower.”

The cardiologist getting ready to examine my heart and lungs  said "come on over here beautiful." At that moment I became beautiful because he had said it. Of course, I am, but so what? The significance of that remark fired into my mind a minute of beauty. Even if I had not looked good that day, I would have thought I looked good. All because a semi stranger, a medical person, who himself is quite good looking, said that word.

Names and words can beautify our lives whether we are seniors, children, young adults or really elderly. Words electrify and have been known to start wars. We should all learn to use our vocabulary to instill sweetness, goodness, happiness and joy. Whatever our given names are, we do not have to like it, but we can make it a word of happiness. Remember that someone’s name may conjure up something in you and even if it is not lovely, still look at the person as if their name was Faith or Hope or Joy. Then it will be ours, because we will have in our heart-faith, hope, joy and goodness. I knew a man when I worked sixty years ago and everyone called him Goody. True, his last name was Goodman and Goody was his nickname and he really exemplified what a good person he was.

When we ballroom dance, let us remember that the name of the dance being played then can instill in us the desire to move our bodies and arms to the music, because we know that the name of the dance controls our movement. Names are powerful and I believe there was a saying something like this:  A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Think if you can, that names are effective, commanding and potent. Elizabeth Barrett Browning said "How do I love thee, let me count the ways." We can count the ways, we love to dance, love to perform, love to excel, love to feel great, love to be successful and most of all love we have taken up this hobby called ballroom dance, and as we dance, we feel as if we are really at a ball. The 'ball' is in our corner and as we round the corner of the room where we dance, we are in charge of our body, our thoughts and our movements, as we glance at our self in the mirrored wall and we know that we can 'name' our happiness at this moment because we use the word DANCE in our life. To dance is a powerful and beautiful name.

I heard this line on the Home Shopping Network today as it was used to describe an attached jewelry piece of furniture to an existing door in the house. It said that this will be used to store good memories of jewelry that were worn by a deceased relative and is now yours; or jewelry that elicits beautiful memories of who gave it to you or when you purchased it. Storing pleasant memories is like a name which means something powerful to you. Whether it be a child’s name, a piece of furniture, a visit to a vacation area or a name of a book you loved as a child; this is the power of names. A name can make you happy or sad. It is an appellation, a designation, title. On the phone one day, when calling my Visa card company, the recording said wait for a relationship manager of our team to help you. Right away, I thought, wow, this person will be really nice and of course, she was.

Names are important. Take the hand cream called Curel. Right away, even before using it, you think it will cure my dry hands. The name Direct Buy for a furniture company sells that the prices will be inexpensive because you are direct buying from them. The name Next Day Blinds makes you think that all blinds will be installed the next day. However, as great a company as they are, some blinds must be made custom for you and that is fine if that is what you need. I used their services and they were wonderful to deal with and I was very pleased. The reason I chose them was for their name and felt it would not be a long drawn out couple of months venture. It was not next day, because I chose something outside of their next day guarantee.  That was fine with me.

The moral or theme of this is that whatever name you choose for your children, your business, your vacation spot, your furniture dealer, do it with a thought of future happenings.

Your name is your signature on your written checks, your house purchase, your department store acquisitions and your happiness. Names are powerful, beautiful and wonderful.