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I’ll bet if you took a survey across the Country and asked how many people liked their names, a majority wouldn’t. I once heard of a family in South Georgia that had so many kids they ran out of names and started naming their kids pet’s names. Can you imagine going through life named Fido or Spot?  I met a woman in Alaska whose name was “Eighty”.  That’s right, 80!  I asked her how she got that name and she said it was her Mom’s favorite number.  There was an article in the local newspaper about a man whose name was Herman Schitzmiller. He actually went to court and had his name changed…to George Schitzmiller. Strange man.

Some folks just don’t have an imagination when it comes to naming their children. Take this “Junior” thing, if Daddy is already named John Q. Smith, why in the world would he want to hang that name on his own son? It gets worse when Junior carries it on further and names his son John Q. Smith III or even IV. Where will it all end? I can see it now, the year is 2058, John Q. Smith XIII is watching his favorite movie, Rocky XXIII starring Sylvester Stallone XVI.

We should rethink this naming process. In my own ancestry I have a thirteenth Great Grandfather named William who had a son and named him George, who named his son Nicolas, who named his son George, who named his son Nicolas, who named his son Nicolas Jr. I got dizzy writing that.

I had a high school teacher named Mrs. Miller. She named her daughter Deborah Ann Miller. She thought nothing about it until her daughter was in high school. Back then it was a fashion thing for girls to have sweaters with their initials on their sweaters. Mrs. Miller told us that the first time her daughter proudly wore her new monogrammed sweater to school, she came home in tears. Mrs. Miller asked her what was wrong to which the daughter replied, “Why did you name Deborah Ann Miller?” Oops.

One fellow in Arkansas didn’t worry about naming his kids, he started out with 1, then 2, 3, and so on. When they were old enough to attend school, he let them pick their own name. The man was way ahead of his times.