For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 19, 2017

My first given name (which I shall not reveal) is from a great-great-great-grandfather. Oh, also a prophet from the Bible… and another prophet from the Book of Mormon.

Mike may be the guy trying to look at naked girls in the shower (or a naked neighbour girl from a tree) and yet there is only one girl we have been shown in his older kid group in camp and he doesn’t know her name. It seems pretty obvious what his priorities are with the opposite sex.

Obviously Martha does not have this problem. She doesn’t have to ask Michael his name because she already knows it.

By the way, the story Michael tells is the real life story of Lynn’s son, Aaron Michael, who got the name Michael from Michael VadeBoncoeur, a friend of his mother’s from high school.

I was named after a character from a book my father used to love. He said, he wanted me to be as happy as the girl in the book.

Why so many people hate their names? t’s a long story.

Knew a guy who’s first name was Louis. Try getting that spelled correctly. The second problem arose because his middle name was Edward. Naturally he wrote it Louis E. Years of mispronunciations in school, waiting rooms, announcements, snail mail, etc. Names can be a burden at times.

For years I had been under the impression that I got my name – Karen – because my parents were expecting a boy & didn’t have a girl’s name picked (I would have been Daniel), so it was a last-minute pick. I resented that for years. However, a few years ago I flat-out asked my mother where my name came from. My mother said, “I named you after one of my favorite books.” It hit me then, and I said, happily, “You named me after Karen Killilea?” “Karen”, written by Marie Killilea, is one of MY favorite books as well! (Side note: my parents don’t believe in female variations of male names so they never even considered Danielle.)

My husband was named after his parents’ favorite teacher, Miss Kenley. He’s still the only Kenley I’ve ever met.

I was named after the minister who married by parents, and the doctor that delivered me then I was adopted. My adoptive parents didn’t rename me, left given and middle name the same as I was originally given.

I was named after the lead female character in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Miranda. But my mom thought it was spelled “Maranda”, so that’s how to this day at age 50 I’m still being told I spell my name wrong. It can be a small nightmare with insurance and loan companies. If I don’t spell my name out to whomever is writing down my information, I can be denied claims and coverage when they get my written signature and paperwork and see an “a” where there “should be” an “i”. There have even been times when I spell my name out very clearly, but they still write it with the “i”. I’ve learned to tell people that I have no other vowels in my first name but “a”. It makes them stop and parse that meaning.

Let us see, a young man called Tom Marvolo Riddle, named after his father….nope, I foresee no problems.

My mother named me Janet because she liked the name. My brothers called me “Jan-nut” and by the 8th grade, the “et” was gone.

“This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…”

Quit complaining. Paul McCartney named his sheepdog Martha and wrote a song about her. “Martha My Dear”. Lol!

Everybody misspells my name. I’ve had every vowel with both single and double “L”. The most common ones are Allen and Allan.

There is a cartoon talking dog named Martha. Martha Heyer I liked as an actress.

Lynn’s Notes:

Michael in the strip and my son in real life were named for a school friend; Michael VadeBoncoeur was destined to become a comedy writer. He eventually wrote for the CBC and created blackout comedy skits for places like Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto.

I drew Daryl mainly because of my older twin sisters Ferol and Carol. Gone With the Wind was popular at the time, so middle name chosen was Leigh. I always thought that I had a rather unique name, but an internet search turned up about six others – two of which are girls! And one a descendant of slaves. (I’ve also noted that Jezebel isn’t used much anymore!) Re twins: My grand father was a twin, twin sisters, and now twin grand dtrs! My HS graduating class of 54 had four sets of twins. And two cousins wound up with twins!

I was named after an actress on a soap opera my mom watched – not the character name but the actually actress’ name and I never liked it. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not that bad of a name, I just never liked it. Been using my middle name for years now.

I was named after Scarlett O’Hara’s sister. I was so disappointed when I got old enough to read the book and discovered what a loser my namesake was!

I was named after my paternal grandmother – Marietta Mary McCoy. I like my name, but I am often called Mary; not because it’s my middle name, but because people (including relatives) can neither remember or spell my first name. I miss how my now-deceased maternal grandparents would call me Marietta Mary.

My mother (who prefers to go by her middle name) once told me long names make people think. She’s right. Long names do make people think … of nicknames.

I met a girl named “Heaven” and one named “Nevaeh”, (Heaven spelled backwards)pronounced Nah-Vay.

There’s this one girl whose last name was Buckpitt. (you can imagine what she was called around Jr. High age). Well, she got married. Last name was no better….Horey. His first name…..Stoner….I kid you not. He’s a Dr. of medicine now. Probably retired. Oh yeah, my GS’s dentist….Marlin Salmon. Sounds fishy, doesn’t it?

My dad gave me a name he heard while in France during WWII. No one else in my school had a name like mine. I thought that was cool. To the day he died he couldn’t spell it. He always ask me how to spell it when he needed it.

If this was set when President Eisenhower was in office, then Michael could have said “MIKE LIKES IKE”.