Mental Name Games

Grace discovered today that sprinting up the A-Town Courthouse steps does not have the same effect—aerobically, aesthetically, or inspirationally—as Rocky Balboa’s famous climb to the pinnacle of the plaza at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But it was fun and funny. And in the immortal words of Dr. Seuss (and my cousin Karin): “If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”

Other thoughts from today’s practice run of the A-Town Strawberry Festival 5k:

I like to name things—part of my wordsmithing nature, no doubt. Regular A-Town readers are privy to my opinion about pet names. The naming process for our children was…well, exhaustive, involving much poring over name books and websites, such as the Social Security Administration Section on Popular Baby Names—fascinating stuff!

In re-reading the fifth Harry Potter novel with Vi recently, I developed a fondness for the name “Neville,” and I tucked it away as a handsome moniker for a future Waters baby boy, should we be thus entrusted (No announcements here, Nor intentions—Just the possibility). While I jogged today, however, I considered Neville’s negatives: It contains the word “evil,” and it rhymes with “devil.” But the meaning is nice—“new town”—and, in addition to the underdog-turned-hero namesake of HP fame, there’s the notable conductor Sir Neville Marriner. These are the sorts of debates we conducted (“we” meaning Grace and herself, as well as Grace and Will) while settling on names for our 3 offspring. Spellings, sounds, celebrity associations—all these matters matter!

It’s much easier to name cats than people, of course—and I also find the invention of pseudonyms enjoyable. One of my best, I think, is “Hester Catherine Huber.” I started a blog by that name a couple years back, but (like several others—all others, actually, prior to A-Town) didn’t keep up with it. “Hester” is the combination of my grandmothers’ names, Helen and Esther. “Catherine” is the name of the street where my mother grew up. “Huber” was the avenue of father’s boyhood residence. Perhaps I’ll use HCH as a pen name in the future.

Another name notion I dreamed up on today’s jaunt: “A-Town Atalanta.” On Twitter, I’m “A-Town Gal.” But today while I ran, I remembered the mythical character whose story captured my imagination as a child of the ’70s memorizing the Marlo Thomas album, Free To Be You and Me. Atalanta is a girl who runs, thereby gaining strength of character and freedom from tyranny—yep, that’s me.

Finally (and this is not a note from the mental part of my workout, but from an email my mom sent this evening), a new name for Ginger: Riley. As in “the life of”—that’s the kind of treatment he’s getting these days, all thanks to Harriet…I mean Jingle. I guess, for Ginger, that bite turned out to be a blessing in disguise.