Thursday, April 25, 2013

Hello, My Name is Meredith

Recently, a friend of mine gave me a really cool book titled The Book of ME: A Do-It Yourself Memoir. The book is filled with questions that you fill in the answers to--some are simple, some are deep, and some are just fun--and the idea is that you're recording your life history and memories. I think it is SO SO cool!

I started filling in blanks in my book a couple of weeks ago and realized that some of this would make good blog fodder along the way. This section is all about my name.

What is your full given name?
Meredith Lee.
Obviously, I left my maiden and married names off of the blog. By the way, does maiden sound like an antiquated word to anyone else besides me?

How was your name chosen?
My parents actually wanted to name me Rebecca, but my great-grandmother did not approve because she had a maid named Rebecca and there was no way I could be named after her african-american maid. Yeah, those were much different times. One grandmother suggested they name me Virginia since that was where my parents lived at the time. I'm kinda glad they nixed that name. After I was born, they decided upon Meredith. My mom went to high school in NM with a girl by that name and always liked it, and I understand there was a character on a popular soap opera at the time (The Edge of Night) with that name as well. They both agreed that it fit me! My middle name, Lee, comes from my mother's maternal grandfather and my dad loved it because he was a big Civil War buff and loved Robert E. Lee.

What do you like to be called?
Meredith, Mer, Mom

What are all the nicknames you have used?
Mer
Mer-Babe
Kiddo (John calls me this--I love it)
Catfish
Meringue
AwesomeMER
FeredithMee 

How did you get those nicknames?
Mer - My sibling and I have all have long names and our parents really didn't shorten them. I think it was my college roommate who first started calling me Mer--and I loved it! Still do! I figure if you call me Mer then you know me pretty well or are comfortable around me. 

Mer-Babe - I think one of John's friends started referring to me in college as Mer-Babe and it just stuck. 

Kiddo - John alone calls me this. I think it's sweet. And endearing. But he's the only one allowed to call me that. 

Catfish - My dad nicknamed me Catfish because he said I was ornery like a catfish (he was a big fisherman). I did NOT like this nickname growing up. I remember being horrified a time or two while playing softball and hearing him call out "Go Catfish!" from the stands. I had no idea how sweet that memory would be to me now.

Meringue - just a silly thing John calls me because the first three letters are my primary nickname.

AwesomeMER - another silly thing John and I joke about. He'll tell me I'm awesome and I remind him that I am awesoMER. Emphasis on Mer. 

Feredith Mee - My dear friend, Randi, reversed all the first letters of my names to make this funny nickname. It's funnier if you know my maiden name because she'd call me by all three! It caught on and a lot of my high school friends called me that. It still makes me smile.

Have you ever been called by a name that was distasteful or hurtful? 
Ummmmm, yeah. Doesn't feel so great.

If you could choose a different name, what would it be?
I actually really like Meredith, but my other two favorite girl names are Callie and Christin.

2 comments:

Lauren said...

I love you, Mer!!!!! :)

*carrie* said...

Fun post. Did you see I just wrote about all the nicknames we have for our kids?!