OT: I identify with.....

Interesting. My Hebrew names, of course, have to do at least with religious and family history. But, my English names - well, Ellice is the French version of Elizabeth, but my mom didn't like the normal spellings, and actually I was nameless in the hospital, for 2 weeks, until she found my name in some diaper service book. Our family is from Austria and Southern Russia (Kiev and surroundings) - though with my coloring, and that of my mother & aunt, it would seem somewhere along the way some soldier or the like had their way with an ancestor in the days of the pogroms - some of my grandparents were born over there) - and our names are completely irrelevant. Though my nephew is named Max after grandfather.

DH - a.k.a. Jon - is actually Jonas (pronounced yawn-ahs) as they're Lithuanian. His dad changed the surname when working for the war dept. in the 40s - way back before DH was any kind of possibility. Though we've thought of going back to it (it's more interesting than the current 4 letter version).

My last name - means "silk" in german, but it was changed from starting with a "Z" by my grandfather around 1916 - when he was a little boy - because he got tired of being last in line in school. In high school, my best friend wanted to change her name back to Salha from Sally - her family also Russian.

I know another Gregor here.

It's a very nice spelling.

ellice

Weren't you the one whining about migraines etc etc etc last week. ? We get it, your life sucks but you do not allow anybody elses life to suck, all sympathy to Miss Whiner and nobody else.

I thought at some point or rather you were a Quaker, never heard the prayer "Lord give me the grace to see myself as other people see me" ?

This gave me quite a chuckle - our children are Scottish, Irish, and Cherokee. DS ended up with a "normal" name, but DD has a Native American name for her middle name - Aleshanee. It means "she plays all the time" and boy is it SO appropriate!

My name came from Dr. Zhivago (no, no Russian blood in me) but it was Lara , which always got pronounced LAY-ruh...um, nop, it's lah-rah. I watched the movie when I was 18, immediately stormed to my mother's room and asked how she could have possibly missed the fact that "Lara" is the diminutive of "Larisa"!!!!????!!!!! I changed my name shortly afterwards, and have had no pronunciation issues with it.

ah well....we all get screwed over by our parents in some way.....was going to give son first name of MIchael, but with our last name and the middle name we were thinking of, he would have been "MTV"...couldn't do that...18 years as "LSD" made me look long and hard at initials

Somwhere down the line, we must be related...lol. DH and I are doing one better this year - we subconsciously waited too late to invite anybody to spend the holidays wiht us, so this year, we will have a fairly angst-free holiday season, just playing and goofing with the children (I still have to deal with my SAD, which is the initial reason for me getitng the OTT light, and all I have to do is let DH know that I need OTT time....things are good after that).

Larisa

Blame the cat...that's what I always did.....or just escaped anywhere but home....probably why I ended up an alcoholic at 16...sober now for several years, but still....parents are divorced, dad remarried, mother on...um...3rd fiance?? Yet another person she thinks she can "fix". I keep telling her to cut it out with men, particularly those with issues until she has fixed herself. She just doesn't get it...oh well, I still love her, she will always be my mother, but until she gets help, she will never have my kids visit without one of the parents, she will never be left home with the children for extended periods of time (neighbor is a good friend who watches out for the kids even if mother is here), and she is only welcome for SHORT visits with us

Larisa,

We got DH a "Happy Lite" from gaiam.com. It's making a world of difference for him (and me in a "related" way) -- I sit under my OTT for a while most days -- he sits in front of the happy lite for ~ 30 after he gets up each morning *unless we're in Florida*, then 30 minutes of yoga, then shower, then work for him (I have my office at home).

EG

Dude's ongoing joke while I was pregnant was to refer to the babies as "Smedley Oswald" our last name beginning with an S, the initials would have been SOS....and with a name like Smedley the kid would been right to call for help! lol

Caryn

My middle name is Sigrid, from one of my Norwegian grandmothers. Thankfully didn't have it as a first name growing up! Kids can be so cruel.

When it came time to name our kids, I felt I couldn't go to family names...hard to name a kid Mercine (Greek) or Zlata (Croatian) or Arne (Norwegian) in today's American society! And that's three of their four grandparents!

sue (second-generation American married to another second-generation 'Murrican)

And best of all - as HERSELF!

Pat

Oooooh! We came the long way gome from visiting our son in Deal just so we could go to Hever - and we picked the day it was SHUT!!!

Still, we do have a house just across the river, which belonged to Ann Boleyn`s family, and where Henry VII used to visit her. It`s only half a mile from the church (at Erwarton) where her heart is supposed to be buried under the chancel. Some years ago they excavated a small casket which only, of course, contained dust. We sometime lunch at the pub just over the road - appropriately called "The Queen`s Head". They changed the sign a few years ago, and it`s AWFUL. A supper glamourised and very modern looking girl - mothing like any of the official portraits! Makes me want to spit!

Pat

Pat

I like how outspoken she was in a time where women were not expected to express their opinions. Of course it got her into trouble and she was expelled from Massachusetts (another thing I like.) Also - the Hutchinson River (and Hutchinson River Parkway, which I take all the time) were named after her - she is one of very few women with a river namesake.

Alison

My ancestry is a mix of English, Scottish, German, and Latvian (or Lithuanian, we are not quite sure) Jew. My name, Alison, is Scottish and I was supposedly named for an aunt on the Scottish side. I would have liked Rebecca (at least now I would have liked it), my Jewish grandmother's name. I'm just glad I didn't get Kerenhappuch, one of my Hendon ancestresses (she was known as Happy Hendon.)

Alison

Well, much of my background is Scots/Irish, so it's no great surprise that I am Margaret Elizabeth, named for an aunt Margaret Elizabeth, who was named for an aunt Margaret Elizabeth, who was named for two grandmothers Margaret, and who also had a mother-in-law named Margaret. :) Now try sorting out which of the Margarets (McQueen) mothers, daughters and daughter-in-laws you are dealing with when doing geneaology. In one case Margaret Logan married a McQueen. Her mother-in-law was Margaret McQueen who had a daughter Margaret McQueen. Sigh! The Scots had a habit of giving the eldest son and daughter their parents' names.

Marg(aret)

Hi Pat,

I'm going fine this week. It's a public holiday today, so I've been sitting and stitching a bit.

Further reply by email.

Bye for now.

Rosemary

She certainly was unusual for her time. Are the Hutchinson River and the Parkway in Rhode Island? If not, where?

Rosemary

MargW ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Probably to keep us humble lol Still in NS, up in Cape Breton, they do the identifying thing, John 'Red' MacDonald because his red hair is really his identifying mark from all the other bald, dark or blonde John MacDonalds lol

It went completely haywire in my fathers family because two sisters were married to two brothers at my grandparents level. Thus my cousins are what is known as double cousins, the gene pool between us is less than a sibling but more than a normal first cousin. One from NZ visited me a few years back and we were really very alike. Both of us had migraines of course but we were somewhat alike in looks and very much alike in outlook.

I perpetuated the name them after the ancestors too !

I claim Russian Jew heritage because when my great-grandparents left "the old country" their town was within the Russian Border, but you know how flexible that was back in the 1910's.

My girls are glad that we didn't give them family names. On Dude's side we have an Aunt Ferlle, and on my side (had they been boys) I had a great-great named Zopher. lol

Caryn

West Chester Co N.Y, for the Parkway....I assume the river is there as well.

Sadly, the parkway is usually just "the Hutch" which takes away from Anne, don't you think?

Caryn

I have double first cousins - would you believe we all look quite different from one another in coloring. I'm the only one that carried a family name forward - DD's middle name is my grandmother's first name.

Cheryl