What's in a Name?

 

During third grade I became fascinated with names, after a mouthy boy at Lincoln Elementary called me "Lettuce" and "Lettuce Head."  

 "I am not a lettuce head," I screamed on the playground that day, as my right arm socked him in the face. He cried and I found myself in the principal's office.

Between the principal's words that day and the scolding from my mother, my head felt scrambled in thoughts. Why couldn't a lady fight?  I felt proud of my name because I was the only Letty in a world of Carols, Bettys, and Lindas. Worst of all I learned that words hurt more than bruises, to me. 

Seventy-five (oops, 76) years ago, my parents gave me a name long enough to fill the line on the birth certificate, Letishia Isabelle. Within weeks that great long name became Letty.

Mother helped me look up the meaning of my name but the encyclopedia set only showed these names.  She said she thought Letishia meant happiness and that is why she named me that. I am not so sure I believed it nor did it make me happy.    

That year in third grade a wise woman entered our lives. Leona DeAttley Hampton a loud, vivacious, intelligent, and eccentric woman, who loved the names Letty and Jonya. Like a lioness prowling for attention she would step into our living room, stop, turn her head both ways searching for two little girls. When she saw us she sprang to life. What she said, I no longer remember. It was how she said it that caught my attention. No other woman in my life could capture our attention quite like Leona. Even my father stayed in the room when she visited. 

It was mother's description of Leona that sent me to our worn-out dictionary that mother had carried with her since the war years. Words filled my head. There in I found the meaning of eccentric, a person of slightly strange or unconventional views or behavior, and vivacious, lively and animated. 

Leona fit all of those descriptions and along the way I discovered that the back of a dictionary also listed names and meanings of names. Letishia meant "JOY and HAPPINESS", and my mother didn't spell it like the Latin form Laetitia. I do not hear and understand separate syllables very well (phonics did not help me learn  how to read), and I realized that mother's spelling was better than being called  Le tit tit ia by some mouthy boy. 

Something about knowing my name meant happiness and joy along with my love of the word eccentric made an indelible impact on my life that year.  Words also took me a step closer to becoming a lady, who could stand her ground with words not by throwing punches.

Knowing Leona may have also done the same thing. Her greatest gift to me was bringing  foreign exchange students from Northeastern A&M Junior college to our home on E street, Southeast. I recall discovering that a young man who had dark eyes and melodious voice was named Said. When he spelled it out for me, I turned to explain that he misspelled his own name.

"You said your name was Syeed, but you spelled it like the word said. How can that be?" He smiled and I discovered that not all things are the same in this world. 

Patty, Jonya, Katy, and Letty, all member of AARP!

This holiday season my sister, cousin, daughter and I met for lunch at Scratch restaurant in Norman. Gifts are not necessary, nor our cards. What matters is that the four of us are together to celebrate our December birthdays.  Our daughter, Katy, is a September birthday and loves to celebrate it twice, once then and again with us. 

My sister surprised us with the sweetest gift this year, the meaning of our names. 

She then opened her phone and began to read:

To cousin Patty, your name, Patricia, is the female given names of Latin origin, derived from the Latin word patrician, meaning "NOBLE." Applause applause. The name and its meaning match up with Patricia, and she even sits and walks boldly upright with the look of a patrician. 

To my niece Katy, your name, Kathryn, is Greek for "PURE." It has been a popular name choice for saints and royal family members.

I interjected, she was actually named after Kathryn Hepburn, a strong steadfast woman, and Alexis Smith, a Broadway star in The Follies. I intended for Katy to be Alexis or Lexie until a male friend of the family tried to nickname her "little Alex." I quickly changed her name to Katy. 

To my sister, Letishia (Jonya uses here Spanish accent to say my full name), your name means  "JOY and GLADNESS." 

Jonya, now where did that come from? Mother announced to dad that under no circumstances would her new baby daughter be given a man's name, thus Jonya like Tonya became my little sister. The name Johnie is both a boy's name and a girl's name meaning "GOD IS GRACIOUS." How perfectly descriptive for my little sister. She is not only beautiful by appearance but gracious and kind to all. 

She shared our name gifts aloud that day bringing smiles and near tears to our eyes. 

So I ask, "What's in a name."