My name is Claudia.
My name, like yours, is one of the few things that has truly been with me since birth. Seven letters. Three consonants and four vowels. Uncommon enough that my name never came printed on any of the fun pads, cups, pens, and jewelry my friends had, but common enough that in the third grade, Claudia Swift sat three seats away.
I wasn't named after my mother or my father's mother who immigrated from Spain. My name wasn't handed down from a great grandmother or from the elder of a small village on the other side of the globe. It isn't rich in family history and it doesn't translate into something exotic like Graceful Bird or powerful like Wise Tiger.
But still, I have always loved knowing I was named after one of my father's favorite students. The way my dad tells it, Claudia was smart and interested. She was an "A" student. She was curious, a good writer, and eventually she wrote for the school paper. In a word, what I think my dad meant to say was that Claudia Shined.
I bet most of your parents would say the same thing about your namesakes. They Shined. The person after whom we were named possessed a quality that our parents admired. And by letting us share that name, they were by extension saying that we, too, will Shine.
I never met my dad's star student, but since this week is National Celebrate Your Name Week and today is National Namesake Day, I find myself thinking about her more. Are we anything alike? What did she go on to do with her life? How many more people, other than my dad, did Claudia make an impression on?
Does she have any idea that, because of the way she lived her life, there is another woman roaming the planet with her name?
I wonder.
And I wonder about you and your name. Do you have a namesake that you know of? What's his or her story? Were you named after strong and loving grandmother or a crazy uncle or the sibling of a parent who died young or your mother's favorite soap opera star? Celebrate National Namesake Day by visiting us in the Comment Section and telling us what you know about your name.
Shining off until tomorrow...