--- Garret <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Doesn't Joni have some Irish blood? > > My first name is really Liam (says so on the > birthcert and passport!), but > have never ever been called that. Garret is my > middle name. My parents had > wanted to call me Dylan (after Bob believe it or > not) and decided then to > call me Garret (after a politican) at the last > minute. The priest didn't > like the name and wouldn't let them (he was probably > anti Fine Gael; but > then so were my parents and still are 21 years > later), citing the fact that > it isn't a saints name.
Hoo boy, can I relate to that! That's such a Catholic thing, and the Irish Catholics are probably the worst about it (although there are so many Italian girls named Mary or Rose, so the Italians are up there with the Irish for being worried about giving their kids the right name.) My parents agonized over what to name each of us, insisting that at least one, if not both, names be a saint's name. Believe it or not, by the time the 4th girl came along, between the saints and the way names sound when you say them out loud, they were running out of name ideas. They wanted to name my youngest sister after my mother, Noreen, but weren't convinced Noreen was a saint's name (I'm sure there must be a St. Nora or a St. Noreen or a St. Honour for that matter in Ireland or England or Scotland, but I digress.) They decided it might be OK to give her the name Noreen if they could come up with another for-sure saint's name. Somehow they thought of Susan and then couldn't figure out if there was a Saint Susan or not. But then they realized there was a Susannah in the Bible and even Old Testament names qualified as saint names for some weird reason (it's a Catholic thing, probably something to do with Jesus releasing all the Old-Testament people from hell, as, according to the Catholics, heaven apparently didn't exist until he came along, at which point you have to wonder why anyone thought life was worth living at all - life's a bitch and then you die AND you go to hell!) So my sister is Susan Noreen, known as Susan. I figure at some point there had to be a first person by the name of [whatever], so trying to name your kids after saints is a bit of a loser's game. We might just as well name them all Jesus and Mary. One day there likely will be a St. Tiffany for example or a St. Kyle, and for all I know, there already is somewhere in the world. ______________________________________________________________________ Post your ad for free now! http://personals.yahoo.ca