Names

I've grown up knowing that names have power; another wording is that people tend to take on the nature of their names.

Last year in my high school life skills class, my teacher had all of us look up the meanings of our names. She commented later on how each of our names seemed to fit us "to a T." For me, that was no surprise, but it was always cool when confirmation of what I was taught came along.

Sometimes I feel like I take it to almost an extreme in that I can't even name my fictional characters without knowing the name meaning and making sure it fit. But a couple years before I started doing that, back when I first started role playing online, my characters never seemed to turn out in practice the way I specifically described them in their biographies. The general information and personalities would stay the same, but I would often be surprised when typing out their actions and thoughts. One character ended up lonelier than I would have thought. Another more bullheaded.

Since I've begun looking up names beforehand, though, that gap between biographies and actual role play has lessened. I can't say it's vanished completely, but it has definitely lessened.

I see a pattern there. Do you think it's just coincidence? Have I just gotten better at fleshing out characters via biography? Could be, I suppose. Regardless, I'll continue looking up name meanings before assigning them to anyone or anything.

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Shifting for a moment from name meanings to names as identities, I'd like to share a story about my own name. Kaitlin. Nice and simple, right? Kaiti. Weird spelling, but easy enough to say.

My problem used to be this: Am I Kaiti or Kaitlin?

I am Kaitlin at school and when I'm in trouble. I am Kaiti at home and at church. Everyone knew that. Everyone knew me.

But then I started going to different places. I met new people. And these new people started expecting me to speak for myself when they asked, "What's your name?" And in that split second before I responded, I forgot whether I was supposed to be Kaiti or Kaitlin. So my response would often come out a strangled, "Kaitlee." And these poor strangers would have to try to decipher what I meant.

Now I think I'm finding firmer ground again. Being at college five days a week, going home only on weekends, I'm Kaitlin almost constantly. No one at church has to ask for my name; they all know me by now.

So yesterday, when asked for my name from a lady who works at my college, I was able to confidently say, "Kaitlin."

Please excuse me while I pat myself on the back.