I am always interested in why people were named what they were or why they chose the name they did for their own child. I'm sure it has something to do with having an unusual name myself. I usually can't just tell people my name without some explanation, but that's okay! I like telling people about my name. I'm very proud of it. I was named for my maternal grandmother, who was also named for her maternal grandmother. Now I'm not sure if my grandmother's birth name is Helen or Jelena in Serbian. (She goes by Helen.) My name is the Russian version which is actually quite popular. Growing up I would always look at displays with mini-license plates, pencils, coffee mugs, etc. with people's names. I think Yvonne was the closest I'd get. Maybe Yolanda, but because I hate being called that I don't count it! (Yes, people have called me Yolanda.) I used to hate my name. I was never made fun of for it; I don't think people could think of anything!! Maybe it also had something to do with the fact that I was several inches taller than everyone else in elementary school as well. (I was 5'10" when I was 12.)
I got thinking about this because at work today Kristi and I looked someone up and there were a bunch of people with the same first name and birthday (just in different years). When I got home I looked up the Catholic saint day calendar and sure enough, that day belonged St. Isidore the Farmer, among other saints. My dad was named for St. Thomas Villanova (the saint of the day he was born). My mom was named for a great-aunt. My brother is the only one in my family not named for someone else (first name that is) AND he got away with something easy - Matt.
Anyway, that's it - I just felt like sharing! Below is a photo me and my grandmother from a few years ago.
4 comments:
I can totally sympathize with you, although Kristi is not an uncommon name, the spelling is very uncommon. So I too used to look for a license plate, key chain, anything with the correct spelling to no avail! Oh well, I guess we are just unique!
And then there are people like me who want to call you "Felena" but that's just because I'm old! :o) Some Yelena trivia:
--1880 United States Census listed one Yelena
--1930 United States Census listed 61 Yelena’s
--Between 1820-1957 69 Yelena’s arrived in the USA
--Approximately 300 Yelena’s were listed in the Social Security Death Index
Carol, your comment cracked me up! A)I'll take Felena over Yolanda any day of the week!
B)Loved the Yelena trivia!!
Well I can only find things with my name in Texas! I hated my name for the longest time. Dallas Texas, Dallas Cowboys, do you have a brother name Austin, blah blah blah. And just when I felt comfortable with it, I went and joined the Army where I was then known as Private Ryan. Does it get any worse??? LOL!!
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