Its a lazy Sunday and I've been thinking about names, I wonder how many of us actually like our first or christian name. I don't like mine its not a new thing I've never liked it. I was named after my mother, except I wasn't, her name was changed by the nuns when she and her sisters were sent to the convent when their mother died. In those days if one parent died the children were abducted, perfectly legally, by the RCC. My mothers name was changed apparently because there was more than one person with her name in the convent and that, irritates, me.
Its not the catholicism of the name as far as I know my name has no religious connections, and I have no problem at all with names like Mary or Maria although given a choice I would choose Maria. My problem is that such was the power of the church they could change a name on nothing more than a whim. No questions asked no excuses even thought of. My names a reminder of that and is one of the reasons I dislike it, the other reason is its so pedestrian, so nondescript, to me it suggests bourgeois domesticity and I don't like that at all.
Obviously its easy to understand the origins of many names. Butcher, Baker, Robinson, Fitzpatrick and so on, they are easy. Slave names too are easily understood, Mohammed Ali changed his name from the christian Clay to muslim Mohamed Ali because he said that his name derived from slave ownership, many slaves were given the surname of slave owners and whilst that may be another cruelty inflicted by the slavers its as understandable as son of or trade of. To think the RCC and for all I know other religions were still powerful enough to change peoples names, often their original birth certificates being ignored or even destroyed, long after emancipation, independence and equality for all, is somehow worse than the rest or it is for me.
