Chemotherapy was pretty smooth sailing today. I surfed the Internet, ate cookies, and Eric rubbed my feet. I'd rather do those things at home, but still... I can't complain too bitterly about chemo under those circumstances.
Today I received an email from my good friend Luana, who now lives in Hawaii. She mentioned in her email that when she was growing up she never found her name on those pre-personalized coffee mugs or pens at Disneyland. In Hawaii, though, her name is more common.
(Please feel free to correct me, Luana, if I've misrepresented your comments. I hope you don't mind me sharing this with my three regular readers!)
First, an email from Luana is always fun because Luana is charming and delightful.
Second, she reminded me of my similar experience. Martha wasn't a common name for anyone under the age of 80 when I was growing up. I knew no Marthas, and Martha was often the name given to old, spinster, aunts or creepy, old widows on television.
Many, many, older gay men have told me how much they love my name. I think the only people to ever tell me that they love my name upon meeting me have been older gay men. Why would that be?
According to the Social Security Administration, Martha was the 29th most popular girl's name in the United States in 1906. Why don' t you look up your name? There are big regional differences. In California, for instance, the top 100 baby names in 2005 included several Latino names.
A few years ago I found my name while flipping through a book I picked up on a bookstore counter... something like the "100 ugliest names for your baby".
Of course I hated my name when I was a kid. I certainly don't care anymore. And of course Eric says that he loves the name Martha. I love it when he says it, too -- with his little-bit-of-an-accent -- and the rest of the time I don't give a hoot.
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5 comments:
try and imagine spending your youth with the name doreen weighing like lead around your neck. if people heard about me in advance of seeing me, they usually exclaimed "but you're so young!" in other words, i wasn't hobbling around on my zimmerframe, or knitting quietly in a corner of the old folks' home. doreen is the sole bastion of maiden aunts, grandmothers ( i was named after mine) and old fashioned characters in enid blyton books.
martha burton was the only martha in my school, and her sister was named hilda. martha always used to say she was the lucky one!
i'm glad you're feeling better than earlier in the week, martha. i didn't leave comments because there isn't anything i can say that would make you smile, and i don't want to impart hollow cheer.
I very much appreciate people who know when there's nothing to say. I wish there were more in the world! :)
I must admit that I'd take Martha over Hilda.
As a child I decided to change my name to prettiest name I could find. After much consideration I settled on "Carol".
Now it makes me laugh, but at the time... it was the lovliest name I could imagine!
ha! well, i thought that any name with an L in it would be an improvement, so i decided upon dolores, because it also began with a D. of all the most appalling names to choose! i was only 5, but still. carol is definitely the prettier of the two.
Martha and Doreen are truy lovely names. And they don't rhyme with Iguana
Martha doesn't rhyme with ANYthing. It's a bad limerick name, for sure.
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