names

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
--William Shakespeare
Names are important to us. What are some of your favorite (or least favorite) names, and why?
We have the opportunity to be positive or poor representatives of our name(s). Think about it--someone quite a few years ago spent quite a bit of time thinking about what your name should be. It had meaning from the beginning. You are named by your family.
But even before that, you've been marked, named, and claimed by God.
So there's a lot to live up to in our names. And we've all met people who've changed the way we've thought of names--some have new beauty because of the person we've attached to that moniker. Some...well, some names will instead be forever tainted because of the personalities we think of when we hear that named mentioned.
So, for that reason, we'll stick to names I enjoy:

• Ian (I know a young Ian and an old Ian, both are talented, funny, and good looking)
• Sumner (I used to babysit a little boy by this name--Sumner stories are legendary in my world)
• Eleanor (the name of my first car: a red 1961 VW Superbeetle. Yes, my car had a name. Also a good Beatles song.)
• Nola (see below)

My grandmother's name was (is?) Nola Rose, and though I don't have much opinion about the Rose part, I'm partial to Nola. For a long time, I used to confess in a sort of joking manner that "can you believe this? my grandmother's name was Nola!!" But, it's growing on me. You don't hear that name often, and it sounds sweet and soft. And it reminds me of Grandma--the kindest, most generous person I know. We were "birthday twins," and I'll always think of her on August 13th. When I'd hug her (she was shorter than me!), her face felt so soft and cool. She always had the kind of cereal at her house that I was never allowed to eat at home, and she would do anything for anyone in her family, and wouldn't tolerate any badmouthing.
I was a freshman in college when she died, and as I walked into the funeral home in Gallipolis, Ohio, I saw a black and white portrait of her--hair done in finger waves, her face gazing to the right in profile--everyone said we looked just alike.