Since I am assaulted on all sides by plot bunnies, I am starting this collection for the shorter texts that will no doubt accumulate over time.
Chapter 1: What's in a Name?
Facebook Profile: Molly Hooper
Staff name tag: Dr M Hooper, Pathology
Driving Licence: Margaret Hooper
Passport: Dr Margaret Mary Hooper
Birth Certificate: Margaret Mary Hooper
Margaret. It is a name for medieval queens in starched, pompous robes. A name full of gravitas. Too stiff and heavy for Molly, who has many fine qualities but no gravitas whatsoever. The name cries out for a nickname, a pet name, a diminutive.
She could go by Maggie, Marge, Margo, Meg, Peggy, Mags, or even Gretchen.
Gretchen, Dr Faustus's Margarete. She a sweet, innocent girl, he a genius driven by demons in a reckless pursuit of truth. He is her downfall and ruin; she is his salvation. The whole thing a creation of fellow genius J W Goethe.
But no, not Gretchen. (Thank goodness for that; the implications would kill me. Well, not quite.) Molly, conveniently a pet name for both Margaret and Mary. Mollis (m), mollis (f), molle (n), Lat., adj., soft. A name that rolls off the tongue like a sigh of contentment, like a lullaby, like a caress.
Margaret means pearl and the word has travelled far before it ever reached the shores of Britain. It is a variation of the French name Marguerite, which is from the Latin margarita, which is from the Greek margaron, which via Persian goes back to a Sanskrit word, manjari.
Pearl, the result of an irritant entering a soft organism (a mollusk, ironically) and being encased in successive layers of a substance called nacre, mother of pearl, that also coats the inner surfaces of the organism's shell. Is this what happened when I entered her life: a jarring grain, a threat to her peace of mind, an irritant that she patiently turned into a treasure by covering it with layers and layers of her shining essence?
And Mary. Does John know Molly shares a name with his wife? Two Maries. An abundance of Maries in our lives, just like in Jesus'. Mary, mother of Christ. Mary, sister of Lazarus. Mary Magdalene, friend, disciple, maybe lover. Between them, I feel, Molly and Mary have been all of this to me.
Mary, from the Latin Maria, of the sea, stella maris, Ocean Star. But this is a false etymology, because the name really comes from the Hebrew Miryam, origin unclear. The root may mean bitter, and it is nothing short of a miracle that she has not turned bitter and cynical, living as she does among corpses and constant rejection.
Margaret Mary Hooper. Hooper, a maker of hoops for barrels. A ring of steel that holds the pieces together. Ring, round, smooth, mathematically perfect, infinite, symbol of eternity. Or just something that braces a casket of beer.
Margaret Mary "Molly" Hooper, the pearl, the sea star, she who is soft where she might be bitter, she who holds the pieces together. Amazing how accident of birth and parental whim can combine to make such a telling name.
!
(No, I won't mention that.)
!
(This is my secret.)
!
(All right, if you insist.)
The name Mary may go back even further than the Hebrew Miryam. Its most ancient source may lie in Egypt, in the root mry.
It means My Beloved.
Don't tell Molly.