Does a Name Matter?
/The Boston Herald
My Aunt Lorraine, who was named after a comb (Lorraine was a brand), marched into my hospital room a few days after my son was born and gave me what I've come to refer to as THE SPEECH. She said, arms folded, that every man, no matter what he says, wants to have a son named after him. She was 12 years older than I and had had a son a year before whom she'd named Frank Maurice Powers III. I'd just had a son whom we'd named, solely because we liked the name, David. The announcements had been sent. You're too late, I told my aunt.
It's never too late, she insisted.
I have a newspaper clipping somewhere, proclaiming the birth of David Bruce Beckham, newest travel agent in town. But by the time that story ran, the newest travel agent was Robert Bruce Beckham, Jr.
"I was right, wasn't I?" she has said at least a million times.
And then the soccer player came along.
Things would definitely be a lot more interesting for my son today if he were named David Beckham. For starters, he could get a reservation anywhere, anytime. But how many other things would be different about him? How many things would have been different about my aunt had she been named after a lipstick instead of a comb? Had she been Red Rose instead of Lorraine?
Does a name matter?
The experts think so. "Your choice of a name sends a powerful message to your child about your expectations for him and your feelings about who you want him to be," says Pamela Redmond Satran, co-author of "Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana.”
So what were my grandmother's expectations? And what about Stone Phillips' mom? Had his mom had no expectations for him?
The funny thing about Stone Phillips is that he is as stiff as stone. So do we become our names?
Gwyneth Paltrow has named her daughter Apple. Courtney Cox has named her daughter Coco. Will Apple be the apple of everyone's eye? Will Coco be sweet? Is Coco really cocoa intentionally misspelled? Or is Coco named after Coco Chanel? And if so, does this change who Coco will be?
People used to name their children after heroes or saints or a favorite relative in the hopes that the child would grow up to be like that person. It was that simple. Now people, celebrities in particular, are naming their children after everything under the sun. Including the sun.
I have to confess I like all the '60's names: Sunshine and Harmony, River and Chastity, Summer and Sky. I like the feelings these names evoke. I like the names of places, too: Madison, Ireland, Dakota, Montana, Savannah, Boston (Kurt Russell's son). But Brooklyn (David Beckham's son and Donna Summer's daughter) is too confusing.
As is Banjo (Rachael Griffith's son? Daughter?). And Wynter (Mantel Williams' daughter). And Dweezil and Moon Unit, the late Frank Zappa's kids? And Alchamy - the wrong spelling of alchemy, perhaps (actor Lance Henricksen's daughter)? How do people go through life with these names?
Barbara Hershey and David Carradine named their son Free. You can see what they expected of him. Be free. Do what you want.
He did. He changed his name to Tom. Madonna's daughter is Lourdes. Madonna's expectations are clear.
We had a rabbit once. We called him Ovaltine. We had kittens, too, named Ring Ding and Fresca. This was during our food phase.
Maybe Hollywood is going through a food phase, too. Apple, Coco. Maybe Peaches is next. Maybe Frank could be a crossover, a way back to the names of old.
Frank. Hollywood might like this.
