June 22, 2023 ~ Thursday (torrential rains at the moment/marble-sized hail/craziness!)
Happy Solstice and Happy Summer! It’s been a while – guess the lobster was vacationing – off at a clam bake or something. Actually, the lobster was on vacation and then brought back Covid as a souvenir, and well, with everything else … time escaped … and here I am, two months after my last post.
It’s still raining, but the hail and sheets of rain have gone eastward – on their merry way to squash other gardens and make many a windshield into crackle-glass. Glad that was not my story today. Just a LOT of water! It might take my raised garden beds through the weekend to dry out. Guess I don’t have to get the hose out later!
Unfortunately, the storm whacked out the alarm system across the street and that has been going off now for about 20 minutes and the dogs are going CRAZY! Good times.
So, there I was, this morning, planning on picking up Roving Theodore from the airport (in a bit) and I got a text from him informing me that somehow he put “Ted” on his plane ticket from Colombia. No problem except that is not the name on his ID nor his legal name … and, well, airlines won’t let you check in, much less board, if your ID has one name and your ticket, another. They are kind of picky that way. So – instead of getting in this afternoon – he’s getting in after midnight – if all goes well with flights, connections, luggage, Ubers (cuz I’m not driving at midnight!), etc. Being an international flight – it took some doing. Oh, traveling is such fun!
So, it all got me thinking … with all his traveling – how did that happen? Easily. He travels a LOT … as in more than most of my readers and me – combined. And yet – there’s that easily done human error of mixing up your “going by” name and your legal name. It made me wonder how often that happens and what a headache it is, not only for the airlines but for those who inadvertently make one slight human error and then are displaced – aren’t able to board that flight and are stuck – financially as well as location-wise – until they can get things figured out and changed.
I’ve done this myself as I ALWAYS go by Les. Hardly anyone calls me Leslie (except for at Starbucks cuz it’s on my card!) and my sister and mom. NO ONE else calls me Leslie and if someone does – I know they don’t know me. Everyone in my family has had this issue or goes by a name that is not their legal name. So many of us have nicknames … or derivatives of our given names … or shortened names of that legal moniker.
It got me thinking of the names that you shorten … like Timothy to Tim … Leslie to Les … Samantha to Sam … but if you are Susan, you could have multiple options … you could be Suzy, Suzz, Sue, Susie, or even something else. Barbara could be Barb, Barbie, or Babs. Jennifer could be Jenny, Jenna, or Jen. And, if you are Edward, you could be Ed, Eddie, Ted, Ned, Ward, or even Woody.
These shortened names/nicknames are called a hypocorism … which means a pet name, nickname, or term of endearment — often a shortened form of a word or of the name itself.
So many names have other derivations! Think about it. It took me seconds to think of all the names that have “other” name possibilities to them … Margaret can be Maggie, Mags, Madge, Marge, or even Peggy. John can turn into Johnny but also Jack, Jay, or Zane. If you are an Elizabeth, you could be known as Liz, Lizzie, Liza, Lisbeth, Beth, Betsy, Bess, or Betty!
The most common names in 1950 were James, Michael, Linda, and Mary. Okay, so 73 years ago, four names could be used, but more than 15 people could all be called something different yet have the same legal name! It expands out to James as Jim, Jimmy, Jamie … Michael as Mike, Mikey, Mick … Linda as Linds, Lin, or Lynn … and Mary as Mare, Maisey, May, or even Polly. Wild!
But, what are the names that just stand on their own? They are probably mono-syllabic … and perhaps rare? How about Quinn … Owen … Ari … I wonder how many there are?! It’s hard to come up with more than a dozen (in my brain) that do not have some form of nickname or shortened version associated with them.
In any case, unless your name is Ace or Ada or some other stand-alone name, the next time you are making your airplane reservations, check your name on your ticket a few times before you complete your sale to make sure you put down the one that the airline likes – your legal name!
Go have a good day – yeah you – whatever your name is!