who are you?

Note to those who were at the non-canyon but still goodness gathering: this was written a day or so before, but I was trying to space the posts out. That's all.

SallySue. Where did this name come from?

Legend has it, when my mum was pregnant with my older brother, without knowing the gender of their baby, (it) was referred to as Frank. Frank was born in Provo, UT, and the name changed.

With their second child, (it) was called SallySue. This name stuck so well that the older brother balked at the new adorable cute baby (this is why I have limited baby pictures) being called anything but. There was also a time when Molly was considered. Wiser heads (the parents) prevailed, and the youngest daughter was called Heidi. Thus the name of this bloggie.

What is in a name? As Juliet says:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Even she can't really seem to decide if Romeo would be different if he had some other name.

Oft times I've pondered, perhaps oft is the wrong word. I have thought before how life would have been different if I had been called Molly. I would think of the American Girl with her glasses and sweater. Would I have been a different person? Would people have treated me differently? If I were to visit Germany or Austria, would people laugh at me having a child's name?

I've enjoyed this name: it's not too odd, yet distinct. And, I don't often have to spell it out. (Though I have to more often now with the trend of unique/creative spellings.) When I was younger, I loved the idea of it signifying Battle Maiden, at least in the Big Book of Baby names. Today, that there is a whole area of Austria called Heidiland - that makes me smile. It has helped that I have short curly hair, which is reminiscent of the Shirley Temple version of the film....

I digress.

What's in a name? Why are you named what you are? Is it a family name?

Sometimes I wish I had a family name, but we have Swiss-German ancestry so it is at least from the same area.

What if you were given a different name? Would you have acted differently? Do you think you would have been different in some way? More intro or extroverted? Or are these the ramblings of an insomniac? Names have absolutely no impact. But I doubt this extreme to be true, for why else would it matter that they were now called Sarah or Abraham. Or John. Or Christ, being called Jesus.

In the Book of Mormon, Helaman directly tells his sons Nephi and Lehi that he named them after their forefathers, that they might always have in remembrance their good works.

There are some names that have positive and some negative connotations. I remember the first time I met a fellow student with the name of Jesus! It was made a bit less awkward for me because of the spanish pronunciation. Judas? Some life experiences have shown me some names that I shall never name my child.

What is all the fuss about? On Memorial Day, I went with cousins to visit Sara's grave. While there, I found a stone with the name Phyllis Ray Allen. Very similar to Phyllis Rae Miller Allen, my grandmother who recently passed away.

There were no flowers on her grave. I wished I had had flowers to put on her grave. Why? Because she had the name of my grandma who I love. Without it, I would have made an effort to not step on the stone, perhaps even clean off the grass clippings. But the connection would have been gone.