Thursday, August 4, 2011

Names

This is Mei.

  
Mei is my dear sister's babe and is named after me.

When I was a kid, I always thought that it would be the coolest thing ever to be named after someone. There were heriones in the books that I read who were named after famous women. Friends I had who were named for family members. And I wanted that too. I also wished that my name was Amy. Or Dawn. (Apparently I wasn't all that imaginative.)

Sometime around my twelfth birthday it finally dawned on me that my great-grandmother's name had been Damie. I had known this for a long time and somehow I had never put two and two together. My name was Damie. My great-grandmother's name was Damie. I'm probably named for her! Major blonde moment/childhood.

Damie's daughter's name was Serena. Ryann's middle name was Serena. My Dad's middle name is Wesley, the same as all first-born sons for generations. And now there's little Mei.

I have a baby cousin who was born with Down's Syndrome. She is an amazing little girl and has surprised us time and again with her energy and great motor skills. The one thing that she has had a tough time with is talking. She talks all the time, but she can be difficult to understand. Often, when people have a name that's a bit too tricky for her to say clearly, she'll create one of her own. Mine is May. Jared's is Honey.

And now there's Mei.

3 comments:

  1. Oh how sweet! I love passed down names too. I always felt special that my mom had passed her middle name to me and in turn I passed it to my daughter - Lyndene. I'm hoping she will also pass it on. On John's side, Christopher is passed down as the middle name for the first-born males.

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  2. I also love the concept of names being carried from family member to member through the generations. Does Mei come from the end of your name or is it your middle name?

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  3. Me too, me too!!! Kayla is the fifth generation on my mom's side who has the middle name Sue. I LOVE passed down names!

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