The Name Game

It's interesting how people attach different associations to names.

Wife likes names like Hannah, Naomi and Noah. But they sound really archaic to me.

I like Ariel, which means "Lion of God". It's also the name of a celebrated Israeli commando, general, and prime minister. Wife says it just makes her think of "Under the sea..."

I suppose the associations we attach to names are a product of our various life experiences. Probably the most universal association for these Christian names are the characters from which they are named in the bible. That is why Hannah and Noah remind me of a stooped old woman and a man with a shiny white beard.

Slightly stronger would be the names of characters we have seen on screen, or celebrities. That's probably why Ethan is so popular nowadays. And I quite like the name Delilah even though it's an evil character in the bible, and I attribute it to liking the Plain White T's song Hey There Delilah so much. But even though Wife makes me watch Hannah Montanna every night, I still can't get the image of the old woman out of my mind. I'm sure it works for others though, which is probably why Hannah ranks #9 on the most popular names in the U.S.

Of course the strongest association would be with people we know. I know a lot of Kevins, and I like all of them. That's probably why I like the name Kevin. And there's quite a few names I like that Wife rejected because they bring back distasteful memories. On the other hand, she likes names like Blake and Giovanni which probably sound normal to her, having grown up in Western societies. But to me they just sound so foreign and wrong.

So I suppose if any of the people around me gives their kid my name, I will take it as a pretty high compliment. Not because I'm so egotistical as to think they are naming it after me, but because I will know I have not sullied the name in their minds.