The Name Game
Well, since I have already explained the name of my blog in my introduction. I will talk about my given name Lauren Elizabeth.
For starters I will say that my name was picked out by my mother years before she had ever even met my father. One of her requirements to getting married was that their first born daughter was to be named Lauren Elizabeth. I was named Lauren after my Great Aunt Laura and my Great Uncle Loran. On a side note, my uncle received his name because he was the fourth son and they wanted a daughter, so they named him Loran Mabel. So I guess you can say, Lauren is a family name, which was always intended to be for women in my family. I also now have a second cousin (once removed, I think) whose middle name is Lauren as well.
Elizabeth came from my mother’s hometown. Elizabeth, Indiana is a small town in southern Indiana just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. There is one stop sign in the town and is primarily made up of country roads. Majority of my family from my mom’s side still lives in or around Elizabeth, so I go back at least once a year to visit. Also, if you drive down Highway 11 (the main road that goes through Elizabeth) sometimes it feels like I am related to about half the people who live there. Once, my sister and I asked my mom if she ever worried about falling for someone at school who ended up being her distant cousin and she replied, “No, we are pretty well versed on our lineage.”
Personally, I have never been a big fan of my first name, since it is so common. In the year I was born, it was the 11th most popular name, so I have never particularly cared for it. When I was in middle school, I had a class with four Lauren’s and it was miserable, because going by your initial is never fun and Lauren isn’t the kind of name where you can create a nickname. On the other hand, I absolutely love my middle name, and one day I plan on naming my daughter Elizabeth too.
I chose this writing assignment, first because it was easy, and second because I love any chance I have to rant about my name. I chose to look at the family history surrounding my name, because, unlike my younger sister, whose name was chosen because it sounded nice, my name has stories behind it, and I am really proud of that. There was not really any thought process that went behind this other than my train of thought. I guess I could have made up this long elaborate tale of how my family searched earnestly for the perfect name for their first born, and fell upon the beauty that is Lauren Elizabeth. But this would be completely fabricated, so I thought I would stick to the truth.