I mean, really, to humans, everything must have a name. A name gives something an identity, a picture we can form in our minds of the concept we have named.
If I say the word "dog", what's the first image that pops into your head? My guess would be a scruffy-looking stray cocking his head with his floppy ears, begging you silently, with his melty chocolate eyes, "you don't really want that hot dog, do you? And when's the last time you ate? A few hours ago? I haven't eaten in days."
Because of the name "dog" each of us immediately forms an assumption about what that dog will be like and how it will appear.
It's the same thing with human names.
If I say the name "Jessica" or "Aubrey" or "Brittany", unless you know someone by that name or have that name yourself, you'll probably think of some preppy high-schooler with a perfect smile who a lot of other girls hate. Typical stereotype.
But if I said the name "Odette" or "Genevieve" or "Luna", you'd probably think of someone totally different. Someone with long, wavy hair and a shy smile, who likes to wear things other people would never consider, but they look super cute on her.
See how different those are? And that's just a few syllables and letters that are different.
And people can also have totally different ideas of someone with a common name because they know different people by the same name. For instance, this summer, I met a wonderful girl named Cassidy. Wouldn't you think of her up there with Audrey and Brittany? Well, she was totally different.
She was gorgeous, and definitely could have been popular if she wanted to, but she wanted to be different, and it made her all the more beautiful to me.
She had lovely brown eyes and short-ish brown hair. She liked to wear boots up to her knees with skinny jeans and loose tops. She liked lots of those rubber bracelets with messages like imagine and strength and hope on them. She also loved to wear an alien beanie her grandma had given her.
She was always super nice to me, and at the end of the week, she totally opened up to me and made me feel really special about myself because she trusted me with her deepest feelings.
So what about my name, Adalyn Roe? Well, Adalyn is actually my middle name, and Roe is my mom's maiden name. I won't tell you my real last name, but do you wanna know my real first name?
None of you have ever seen pictures of me, so you may have conjured up an image of me inside your lovely little brains, and now I'd like to absolutely ruin those images for you.
I'm going to give you five names and descriptions. You have to guess which one is my real self.
Ready?
Set....
Name!
~ Rose. Short auburn hair, watery blue eyes, and a splash of freckles across my pale nose. The freckles are especially annoying because I have one on the side of my face, and whenever I'm eating with people I don't know that well at youth group or something, they ALWAYS think it's food on my face!
~ Daniella. Soft brown eyes, thick dark eyelashes, olive skin, and and brown hair that is constantly attacking my face. It's untamable. :p
~ Sabrina. Curly reddish-brown hair that just reaches my broad shoulders, hazel eyes that have been known to change colors sometimes and are framed by rectangular glasses. And a sort of slim waist that doesn't like to fit into skirts.
~ Marie. Straight hair with streaks of blond and light brown with darker brown undertones, a million flyaways, and gray-blue eyes framed by dark lashes that I think are the one lucky thing about my appearance, other than maybe my hair. But that's really straight.
~ Abigail. Wavy light blond hair, newly cut bangs, green eyes, and a tan complexion. I look like I'm from Southern California, but I'm really not. I just have French and American Indian blood combined in my veins. ;)
All of these could be names that my parents gave me. They all fit with my last name, I guess, but I have a question for you.
Which one of them suits ME?
Because of the different names and descriptions, you have discovered five completely different mental pictures of me.
If I told you my first name was any one of those, you'd revise your mental picture of me, and even if you thought it was weird that that was my real name, not Adalyn, you'd have to accept it because it was my real name.
And so, since I don't want to wreck that gorgeous, confused, probably inaccurate image you lovely people have in your noggins, I'll go ahead and say my name is just Adalyn, no fancy tricks, no confusion or lies. My real, actual name is Adalyn, and that's how I shall be known from this day forward.
Does it really matter if it's my real name? I don't think so. Because of my name, you have formed an image of me, and I'm willing to bet it's an image I'd like.
Believe it or not, I think we rely sometimes TOO much on names, forming opinions and stereotypes based on what we've heard about this person or that person who bears a certain name.
On to another topic in the same general subject in our one-sided conversation, am I the only one in the world who feels that sometimes my name doesn't really fit me? As if it belonged to someone else and the person who lives in this body needs to be named something else.
Am I the only one like that?
I mean, if somebody asks you who you are, some epic people will say "Your worst nightmare", but most will simply state their name.
"Me? Oh, I'm Lindsay Lohannn. No, not that Lindsay. It's Lohannn. Like....it's different."
Because your name just so happens to be the same as the girl who was in The Parent Trap and made a few (a lot) of bad decisions, people might think that your parents are really weird, (which they probably are,) and that you have potential for getting really messed up later on in life, even though you're scheming and everyone likes your red hair noww...
ANYWAY.
What I'm saying is that names are important. Names describe things other words can't. Can anyone describe the color purple to someone who's blind?Who's been blind their entire life? It's a mixture of red and blue? It looks like bruises? It's the color of violets?
Yeah, no.
What I'm saying is that since we've named things, we don't have to use words to describe them anymore, because if everyone uses one word for the same thing. You can see it, and everything that's purple is just purple. You don't need to describe your favorite nail polish any further. It's the sparkly purple one.
Uh, duh.
What's in a name?
A whole heck of a lot.
Anyway, now that I've wasted several of your inherently valuable minutes, you can go back to browsing YouTube or googling "I ate five slices of cake".
(Sorry, inside joke. ;D)
Oh, and a shout out to Anna from California, my fellow nanoer! ;D You make me ineffably happy, Anna. <3
I'll be posting sometime soon, but not this weekend because I have a reunion to attend for the weekend on a gorgeous vineyard. I'll talk to all y'all soon! <3
Keep Calm and Endeavor On,
~ (mystery) Adalyn (more mystery!) <3
