Namesake

It has often intrigued me the way names turn out. I was supposed to be Jennifer Jean Hellyer, after one of my mom's best friends in college but at the last second my parents decided that they did not want my initials to be JJ and changed my middle name to Lynn after her other best friend. Today she laughs at how strange it is that my middle name is Lynn. According to my mom we are exactly alike in our personalities and mannerisms. We are both quiet and sincere but will wake up at any time of the night to go pick up a friend who can't find another way home. I'll talk to my mom about school and life and she will laugh and say how much I am like Lynn. My sister got the middle name Jean and somehow is just like Jean. They are both loud and the life of the party. My mom cannot see the both of us having our middle names switched, for it would be so strange if we had opposite personalities of our names.

This whole situation has got me thinking, that perhaps children are named in hope that they become the ones they are named after. For I can't imagine naming my future children after someone who drove me nuts or after an ex boyfriend, that would be weird. Instead we think of those we inspired us or who were important to us. It only makes sense that we then would become our name sake; we are raised to.