Post-Thursday, Pre-Saturday Quintet

[athelind]

1. Is the name you have now the same name that's on your birth certificate? If not, what's changed?
Absolutely identical.

2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be?
I've never really thought about it. I rather enjoy the way my birth name rolls off my tongue. On occasion, when my biological father has done something particularly egregious, I have considered adopting my stepfather's last name, but that always seemed petty.

3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?)
I was named Edwin, after my grandfather.
I was not named after my father, Ed Junior.
Strangely, both my mother and my father are very clear on this -- one of the few things they've ever agreed upon. I never knew my grandfather, but my mother liked and respected him a great deal.
I'm the only one of the three who prefers "Edwin" to "Ed".
My sisters consider my father "pretentious" for keeping the "Junior" after his father died, and have, by extension, tried to convince me that I'm wrong to keep my Roman numeral. Feh, I say, feh. We keep our numerical designations both as a show of respect for your predecessors -- and to dinstingush ourselves from them. My father is not the same person as my grandfather, and I am not the same person that he is.

Besides, I've been "The Third" for 39 years. It's as much a part of my name (and, psychologically, my identity) as any of the rest of it.

4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why?
I have a mild aversion to diminutives and variations of my own name.
I was conditioned from an early age to object strenuously to being called "Eddie". I think my father got saddled with that one to distinguish him from his father while he was growing up, and it seemed to chafe.
I dislike being called "Edward" or "Eduardo", though I don't have any particular dislike for the name when it's hanging on another person. Too many teachers made that assumption, then Looked At Me Like I Was From Mars when I corrected them. Oddly, when an old college classmate of mine would trip up and call me "Irwin" (she'd once known someone of that name), it didn't bother me nearly as much as "Edward".

The name I probably loathe the most is "Edwina", followed closely by "Wilhemina". It was an article of faith in my family that, had I been a girl, I would have been afflicted with that unholy combination.

Oddly, I rather like certain less-common variants of "Ed".
"Edmund" has style, and, if I'd had a son, I quite possibly would have named him "Edison".

5. Is the analysis of your name at kabalarians.com? How or how isn't it?
It's frighteningly accurate in almost all regards.
Dead on target:
"Though you have limitless enthusiasm for new ventures, you lose interest quickly once things become routine, as you dislike being forced to attend to detail and do monotonous work."
Misses:
"You find that you often do the hard, pioneering work in an undertaking, only to see others reap the benefits."
"Health weaknesses could ... result in loss of hair."

Not bloody likely, that last.

Comments

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

My sisters consider my father "pretentious" for keeping the "Junior" after his father died, and have, by extension, tried to convince me that I'm wrong to keep my Roman numeral.

How painfully clueless of your sisters. Just because your grandfather is dead is no reason to continue to distinguish between your father and your grandfather, and you and your grandfather, and you and your father. "Junior" and "III" means that there was one person who was named Whatever. Whatever Junior is the second person in that family to bear the same name. That doesn't invalidate the first nameholder's claim to it.

Does that makes sense?