What's In a Name?

A young child starting in pre-school or kindergarten will often have a cute name tag pinned on his/her shirt and the student's name in big letters printed on the inside of any outerwear so that the child soon learns to identify his name on sight. And the teacher has a handy aid to recognize which child is called Madison and which one is Agnes. (I'm guessing there wouldn't be many Agnes names in current years however.) It is important to know your name as early as possible and in most cases that will be part of your identity the rest of your life. Some people have officially changed their name. Others have let the family or friends substitute a nickname which sticks to them almost more than the official name does. There is no doubt that names are very important at every stage of life.

You will notice that the medical personnel in some facilities find out what the patient is used to being called so that they can use their name properly. Then why is it that one of the first things that middle age plus people lose is their ability to remember names? I'm not necessarily talking about the name of a new acquaintance, but we often draw a blank on the name of a life-long friend. Even within your family sometimes the names get mixed from one generation to the next. You call a grandchild by the name of your youngest child. Maybe they remind you of the other person, or maybe it is the role played in your life. For example, our youngest child was a teenager at home when the older three had all left the nest. When we began raising a great-grandchild as a teenager it was hard not to get the two names mixed. They were both the only child in the home. They were both teenagers, and they both were tall. They are both out of our home now, but I still transfer one name for the other when talking to them, or talking about them.

One of my older sisters often called her daughter Carolyn when her name was Sarah. My parents even would sometimes call me by the name of one of my older sisters. Papa called me Kathryn more often, and Mama would use Gertrude's name when she meant me. They never called me by a brother's name however. I can't even say that about my own children. I once even called our son Mark by the dog's name. I wondered why he didn't answer to Topsy."

Now with the Olympics going on, they will introduce an athlete as the star of the last Olympics. They expect us to remember a name for four years! There are a few I could remember that long, but it would have had to be in a sport I was very interested in. I don't think I am being prejudiced to remember the names of the USA teams better than some others, although even some of the USA names are foreign sounding to our ears. When the young people stand there with the gold medal hanging from the ribbon around their neck, I am sure there is the feeling of having reached the top. But many of the fans couldn't tell you the next day what the name of that good looking athlete was. We get a name overload during activities like this and find it especially hard to remember the names.

Since I know many other middle age plus people have this same frailty I want to be sure that my name is on a tombstone so that when someone walks by they don't have to say, "Oh, I know who she was. She was that lady who wrote stuff for the paper. I wondered what had become of her."

Maybe in addition to my name and some dates they should put "Not Middle Age Plus Anymore" on the stone. They might remember that better than my name.