Open Writing

Do you like your name? Does it really reflect your own personality? Or do you wish you had been given a much more appropriate one? Chances are your answers will be, "No", "No" and "Yes" respectively.

Perhaps there is a strong case for changing our names once we have lived a little. Show-biz people are renowned for it. Just like characters in a novel, their names are well-chosen to fit their status in life. If they can do it, why not the rest of us?

I was rather amused to learn that someone I had known as Ralph for many years had changed his name when he had acquired a new, flamboyant wife. It was about the same time that he also changed his life-style and his profession. Previously, he had been to his work-mates as 'Ern', much to the disgust of his wife. "Whoever heard of a name like Ern," she complained. It was obviously too working-class for her, as she associated his name with a tea urn.

There are vogues in names. There's nothing like a Gladys, Ada, Albert or Cyril to give the game away concerning your age. And if you're a Shane or an Elvis, we all know whom your mother was smitten with at the cinema.

And what about the spelling of names? There was a time when deviations were blamed on the father who had registered the birth and in ignorance had mis-spelled the name. It would seem that nowadays many people make a concerted effort to spell names in an unusual fashion.

I have always regarded my own Christian name as too old-fashioned: from birth I had been branded as old before my time. I have become resigned to the fact that my name belonged to the Victorian era, where it should have stayed. I mean, it doesn't even have the dignity of origins in the bible.

Although I did not have a 'cunning plan', I was clever enough in 1960 to marry a man with the surname Eva - a name which I like. Many people tell me that they can remember my surname much more easily than my given name; some have even made the mistake of calling me by surname. Now if I were a Mrs. Bloggs or Winterbottom, I might take exception. But no, with a surname like mine, I like it, I really do.

But what's this? Reading the births column in my evening newspaper this week, I came across an announcement which stated that the new baby girl was to be called Elsie. Not her first name, I hasten to add, but it is a start, isn't it?

Perhaps now that I am classed as a Senior Citizen (although I don't even admit to being middle-aged!), it should no longer be an issue with me, as everyone can see that I'm no spring chicken.

In time, however, as my first name comes back into fashion once more, I will become an oldie masquerading as a sweet young thing. Well, that's an improvement, isn't it?