What's in a name?

"The choice of name tends to affect the development of the character, even the plot. This may be so in real life also." Margaret Drabble.

First names

A name is a very personal, intimate thing. Around the world societies acknowledge this by the importance they place on naming ceremonies, and the care taken with recording people’s names.

Grace Kelly

I have never met anyone who did not suit their name, which is astonishing to me, because your name is given to you by your parents when you are only a few days old. Your character is pretty much unknown at that stage. But our name, our identifier, is one of the most important things about us.

I am now going to trust you with my big secret. Shush, tell nobody! My name at birth was Kathleen. I know, you are astonished, along with all my friends & family, because I have only ever been called Kathrine, or shortened versions. What happened?

After the mother grows the baby for nine months and then gives birth, the father has just one job - to register the name of the baby. In my family there were two occasions when the father did not even do that one job properly - and in both cases it affected me.

Back in the 19th Century, a father in my family went to register the birth of his daughter Katherine Jane. But he got drunk, and misspelt the name, so the baby was registered as Kathrine (no ‘e’ or ‘a’). Later generations named two more babies after the original Kathrine Jane, both continuing the misspelling. One was my grandmother Dorothy Kathrine Jane.

When I was born it quickly became apparent that I was very sick and needed an operation immediately. The operation had a high mortality rate, so my parents wanted to christen me beforehand. They were apparently convinced that I would be a boy and had only thought of a boy’s name - my grandfather’s name of Gordon. This is despite the fact that my father was a doctor and my mother a nurse, so they should have realised there was a 50:50 chance they would have a girl! They had no time to debate names, so they decided to use my grandmother’s name, but only the middle names, Kathrine Jane. Obviously, the operation was a success.

Baby Kathleen c. 1961

Then my father messed up his one job. He said this time it was the clerk who was drunk, and he insisted on registering my name as Kathleen. Though I always used the name Kathrine, or Katy (as a young child) or Kate.

When I was 18, I was advised to correct my name, otherwise I might face complications in future. So, I changed my name by deed poll¹ and officially became the misspelt Kathrine.

What is the story of your name? By telling the story of your name you are sharing a very personal part of your history.

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Surnames

Men rarely change their surnames, unless by doing so they receive an inheritance. Such as the Farquharsons of Invercauld, Scotland, which is near my family home. The story goes that a Farquharson ancestor upset a local witch who cursed the family - that none of the Farquharson lairds would have a son, and therefore a direct heir. The curse stuck, because ever since the title has always gone sideways, to a nephew or cousin, who has dutifully changed their name to Farquharson.

This is Anne Farquharson, the daughter of a chief, who would have made a great chief herself. Unusually, she had military experience (necessary for a chief at the time), as during the Jacobite rising of 1745 she became the first female to hold the rank of colonel in Scotland.

Like most Western women, in Scotland women use their husband’s surname after they marry. But their maiden name is usually put on death certificates and on their gravestones. Being unable to trace a woman once she marries and takes a different surname, is a great obstacle to ancestry hunters and historians.

If you write a memoir, include any other names you may have been known by.

Do you have any stories about your name or other names?

Read more

Jeffrey Streeter

has an interesting article about changing his name.

1. In the UK a deed poll is a legal document that proves a change of name.