Sunday, February 27, 2011

What's in a name?

Apparently, there is another blog out there with the name "Life makes me laugh." (Notice, laugh spelled correctly.) I swear I didn't know this when I picked my blog's name. Now, it looks like I totally copied her blog. I didn't. I swear. That darn Lafferty last name is getting me in trouble again. If you don't know, it's my married name. I took it when we got married and had no problems doing so. Gloria Steinem be damned. No, really, I consider myself a feminist, but not in the stereotypical negative connotation of the term that people like to throw around as an insult. That being said, I never felt the need to keep my maiden name when I got married.

So, Amy Randolph became Amy Lafferty. At first it was weird, especially for my dad. He's a doctor and once left a prescription for me at the front desk of his office. When I came to pick it up, they couldn't find it. Why? You guessed it, he'd put it under my maiden name. That was well past two years since our wedding day. Then, when I started working, it became weird because no one knew what my maiden name was. It was as if I'd completely absorbed into this Amy Lafferty person. Weird, but I got used to it.

Eventually, we had kids, and we had to name them. Molly was easy to name because I'd had her name picked out for as far back as I can remember. I don't even remember picking it, that's how long I'd had it stashed away. It just took a while for Cory to jump on that bandwagon, but Molly Lafferty has a nice ring to it. So, along came the sonogram on our second, when the technician told us we were having another girl. Here came the trouble. I LOVE names with the "L" sound: Lola, Lily, Lila, Lucy, Ella. But, not a single one of those goes with Lafferty. Can you imagine naming our child Lola Lafferty? (Ok, confession time: I just did a Google search for Lola Lafferty, and there are at least three out there. So, my apologies to you three!)

We searched high and low for a girl's name that would go with the name Lafferty. Trust me, it is harder than you think. I know there are some of you who have harder last names, and I don't envy your position at all. There's a rumor floating around in Cory's family that the family's last name used to be O'Lafferty, and it was changed when the family came over from Ireland. How I wanted to revert to the O! It would've made it so much easier. Lila O'Lafferty. So cute. But, for obvious reasons, that wasn't an option.

We finally settled on Charlotte Elizabeth Lafferty - quite possibly one of the longest names out there. I am already dreading teaching her to write her name. And, to make it even more difficult, I refuse to shorten Charlotte. I do not like the name "Char." My friend, Anne, says that it reminds her of Shar Jackson (Kevin Federline's pre-Britney ex). I do not want my child associated with Kevin Federline in any way, shape or form. And, while I love the shortened "Charlie," Cory can't stand that one. So, we call her Charlotte.

It makes you wonder how much names influence who we are or turn out to be. I attended the funeral of my Great Aunt Rose this past week. It was a lovely service, fit for the wonderful woman she was. But, a common thread throughout was how much she loved gardening. In fact, the priest went so far as to suggest she might be up in heaven tending God's garden right now. And, her favorite flower? The yellow rose. Who knows if she decided to start tending flowers because of her name or just happened across the hobby? Maybe it is just pure coincidence, but maybe it's a little influenced by name selection. So, here's hoping that my girls will be able to find lots of "laffs" in their life, because no joking about it, one of my favorite sounds in the world is their laughter.


To Rose: my grandpa's baby sister, my dad's favorite aunt, and a truly beautiful lady.


And, apologies to "Pollyanna" out there with her "Life makes me laugh" blog. I'm sure since you go by the name Pollyanna, if you ever run across my blog, you would see the bright side of this and think it is hilarious!

4 comments:

  1. Another nickname for Charlotte is Lottie. Now that's cute! Lottie Lafferty! It's ok if I'm the only one that thinks so. :)

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  2. One thing, while I don't care for "Charlie" the nickname. I do very much like the female Charlie that lives next to my parents and may read this :)

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  3. I have always loved the nickname Lottie for a girl. It's actually on my list of Future Possibilities :-)

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  4. Love the reference to Aunt Rose. She would have liked your post.

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