A Rose By Any Other Name

I don't know when everyone got the habit of calling my by my first and last name. Everyone does it, people from high school, best friends, even my sister. My sister has the same last name, by the way. I don't know when it started, not that I'm really intent on stopping it or anything.

I blame it on having a relatively short name. It may not seem short at first, but I think it's sounds best to have a 2.5 syllable name or a just a full out 3 syllable name. Do you have a 2 syllable name? I bet one syllable is slightly slow, a lazy eye of sorts. Saaaaa-rah, maaaa-ry, jeeen-ny. 2.5. Em-i-ly, An-dre-a, Cath-er-ine. 3. It's natural.

I have a very short, curt 2. Syd-ney. Ok, so maybe you could make the second syllable a little slow, Syd-neeeey. But either way, call me by last name, they do.

I've grow somewhat affectionate of it, as a term, even if, at first glance, it's slightly overly formal.

And, believe it or not, I've just this instant done research for my blog here. First time ever, sort of thing. Ever since being a kid, we do those stupid like, geneology projects where you make a family tree, get some things about your culture to bring to school.

And to completely digress, I've always hated those projects. I can't tell you how many filipino flags I had to draw. Or how bored I got of not knowing ANY of my great-grandparents names. I feel like those projects are just for yuppie overly american white people. Or I guess, it could work for any sort of overly american person. But the kind of person those projects are for are the ones with over-zealous grandparents that keep track of the family tree and do research in books to hunt it all the way down to royalty like 3 centuries ago in england or ireland or germany. I can trace my family reliably back to my grandparents and that's only to half my grandparents. Projects like that are for braggarts with something more than personal history. But ANYWAYS, my bitterness aside.

Those stupid projects always made you look up the meaning of your first name. I have pretty much the lamest name meaning in all of creation. (Or so I thought before doing my handy dandy research). Normal people have name meanings like, "Wind over mountains" or "beautiful princess" or "Master of all things wonderful." Mine? Mine means, "of Saint Dennis." I usually left it at that. I thought, "Lame I think I'm named after Dennis..." Dennis isn't exactly a name to brag about.

BUT! And here comes the research! I just Wikipedia-ed Saint Dennis, thinking, hey why not get to the bottom of this name meaning business.

And according to wikipedia Saint Dennis was some sort of Catholic martyr that was patron of Paris that had his head chopped off.

Now! That sounds pretty damn cool to me! Because:

1. Head chopped off? Total points.
2. My sister and I always joke about what we were "in a past life" not that we sincerely believe in junk like that. Our theory is that she was a slave or somehow enslaved, to truly get it you have to really know her. And we joke that I must have been some sort of martyr. It's probably an insult, but it kind of makes sense. Although, I always assumed it must have been some sort of Muslim Martyr given that when I learned about various religions on the basis of book like stuff alone (not it's actual practice) I was attracted more to that than the various religions I've learned about. But hey, just like all christians are jews, all muslims are christian. So who knows, I could have been martyred for pretty much anything.
3. And, Paris? Hell yeah.

Anyways, the reason I started all of this name business was to consider my "nickname." I've always wanted a real nickname. I even tried to give myself one, which I'm pretty sure is like the trademark of a total loser, but whatever, I've wanted a nickname. Never had one. And only jus now realized, maybe my full name is used like a nickname.

End of pointless rant right here.