What is in a Name?
For procrastinatingmushroomfangirl
Happy Spring!
Amy
"My mom wants us to name her after Madeline Cahill," a pregnant Hope tiredly told Arthur.
"Why?"
"She think she'll be the second Madeline or something- like the resurrection of Jesus."
"Except, it'll be our daughter?"
"Apparently."
"Wow."
"What would you want to name her?"
"I always liked the name Amy," Hope said wistfully.
"So why not Amy then, right?" Arthur said. "You can't always live under your mother."
"You're right."
"Then Amy it is."
Dan
"No!" Hope told Arthur firmly.
"Why not?" Arthur pleaded.
"We're not naming our son Dan."
"It's not a terrible name."
"You know how I feel about nicknames."
"It's a real name!"
"But its full form is Daniel, which is fully what I intend for him to go by."
"Really?" Arthur asked skeptically.
After his delivery
"He's really loud, isn't he?" Arthur asked casually, watching Hope struggle with the fussy baby.
"He can't-" Hope tried to pry her hair out of his chubby baby hands, "-calm down."
"He's not going to go by Daniel, is he?"
Hope looked down at the squealing bundle in her arms that felt as though it was already trying to escape.
"Yeah, no."
"So we'll call him Dan then?" Arthur asked gleefully.
"Fine.
Hamilton
The Tomas honestly wonder what the Holts were thinking by naming their kids after mostly Lucian leaders. Why not stick to Brady or Serena or Shaquille if they really wanted something out of the box?
Most people think that the Holts were going for a tradition of naming their kids after American presidents, especially since the father is named after a president, and the mother after a first lady.
They were going to do that, to be honest, but Eisenhower and Mary-Todd never realized that Alexander Hamilton was never a president, but merely the first treasury secretary of the United States who would one day get a popular rap musical named after him.
So Hamilton it was.
Madison
Madison is also wrongly assumed to be named after the fourth President of the United States, but she was merely named as such due to Eisenhower's inexplicable love for Madison, Wisconsin, the capital of the state they live in.
Reagan
The Holts took some time to deliberate their last child's name. They already saw a theme going, so they decide on honoring the man who brought conservatism back to the United States (and their family is full of Reagan Democrats- traitors to the party, but the Holts don't really care), and so they decided to name her Reagan.
Ian
"Why not name him after my father?" Vikram suggested. "He was, after all, a very high ranking member of the Lucian branch."
"I don't know…" Isabel said, clearly stalling.
"Rahul is a perfectly good name," Vikram argued. "It even means conqueror in some cultures."
"That's all very well and good but…" Isabel trailed off once more.
"But?"
"He'll already have your surname darling," Isabel pressed, "Why not give him a proper English first name?"
Vikram raised his brows. "So what did you have in mind?"
"Ian."
"Isabel, I'm quite certain that Ian is Scottish in origin."
Natalie
By now, Vikram had resigned himself to choosing another English name when it turned out Isabel was pregnant with a girl, but Isabel had, it seemed, already picked out a name.
"Why not Natalie?" Isabel queried.
"It's such a… prim, proper name- reminds me of a former nanny I had growing up," Vikram said and internally shuddered.
"Well that's what we want her to be, isn't it?"
"But not to the point of repression," Vikram argued, still thinking of Natalie the Nanny.
"Well clearly, you had something in mind, so spit it out won't you?" Isabel rolled her eyes.
"I was thinking more along the lines of say… Kate," he suggested.
"Overused," Isabel sniffed.
"Linda?"
"Too foreign."
"Christy?"
"Too common."
"Naomi?"
"Stop naming supermodels from the nineties, Vikram."
Sinead
"We have to have a name to honor our glorious ancestor, Katherine Cahill!" Mrs. Starling insisted.
"So we give her an Irish name?" Mr. Starling said skeptically. "We don't even have the Cahill last name anymore, you know. What did the Cahills name that girl?"
"Please," Mrs. Starling snorted, "they gave her such a common name- Amy, I think."
"How bourgeois of them."
"Quite."
"So Sinead?"
"Yes."
An Epilogue
"Did you realize Sinead O'Connor shares her name?"
"Oh my God, what have we done?"
Ned and Ted
No one actually knows how the remaining triplets were named, but rumor has it that Mr. and Mrs. Starling decided to be smart and wrote an algorithm that determined the WASP-iest names for boys that could still have nicknames, and the ones that came out were Theodore (Ted) and Edward (Ned).
This is for the Spring Gift Exchange- Holle, I know you wanted something about the various characters as kids and humorous, and I hope I delivered!
A few things to increase your enjoyment:
1. Brady, Serena, and Shaquille refers to Tom Brady (Football player), Serena Williams (Tennis), and Shaquille O'Neal (Basketball). Basically all athletes that would probably be Tomas and far more reasonable namesakes for the Holt Kids, rather than the mostly Lucian leaders they were named after.
2. The Holts live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
3. Reagan Democrats are Democrats that voted just for Reagan, who was Republican- and there were a lot of them.
Also, yes, I do know an unhealthy amount about politics and history- don't judge :)
4. When Isabel said "proper, English name" she pretty much meant a white name, so it wouldn't have mattered to her if Ian was Scottish. Vikram was just trying to make a point there and call her out.
Also, can we talk about how annoying the name Vikram is? We always imagine him to be the older version of Ian (suave, sophisticated, etc.) and his name is really at odds with that- it sounds super FOB-y and lame, like a stereotypical token Indian character they show on Western television.
A/N: To reply to the guest comment, nah don't worry I know it's an Indian name, considering I myself am Desi. However, I can't help but feel that when it came to the 39 Clues authors, the name was just pulled out of a bag of very limited Indian names- I mean, why Vikram? Maybe I've been brainwashed by Bollywood and my own life to think some Desi names sound better than others, but I think one could argue the same for names of any cultures. There are certain connotations to different names, and we almost assign personality traits to them. What I mean to say is that for a badass character like Vikram, his name sounds almost at odds with that.
5. The supermodels referred to are Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell
6. Sinead O'Connor is an Irish singer/feminist/activist that has a shaved head and has spoken super candidly on a lot of the issues- basically a namesake no WASP parents would want for their daughter
7. WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
8. Oh, and the title, of course, is from the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet