I call your name but you're not there. Was I to blame? (The Beatles)

Wie geht's?

Names are interesting things, right? A name quickly becomes synonymous with the person, and quickly fits the personality, or is it, the personality fits the name?

Choosing names for our children is a key moment in our lives, because that name becomes the person and the person becomes the name. For life. Unless the person dislikes it and changes it in some way officially, or otherwise.

Some people change the emphasis to their middle name (never an option for me).

As far as our children go:

• Keegan came from a book of names. Jacky liked it and I thought it was unusual, so - cool. Keegan it was.
• Adam was a name both of us liked.
• We had no girl names sorted before Samantha came along. We were convinced the baby was going to be another boy, so Ethan was on the list. It took a while to settle on Samantha - I wanted a three-syllable name or a one-syllable name.  
• Jade was a one-syllable name that was inspired by our friend Liz. Her stepson was Jade. We loved the name. 

I can't envisage any alternative names for our children.

Jacky suits Jacky (even though her name is Jacqueline), and I guess I suit Warren, but I don't have any distance on it. Whatever, I do like my name.

I'm thinking about names because I'm trying to remember about 120 names that my new female students have in my classes at Iona College, plus about 30 staff. That's not easy.

Some of the girls walk up to me and say, with a mischievous glint in their eye, "What's my name?" 

I'm getting there. It takes constant repetition for the name to match their personalities and lodge in my brain. Certainly, if they are in my classroom, it's easier, but if I come across them away from that context, I tend to make noises like a blocked drain.

Which they obviously think is hilarious.

There are also many girls with the same name, or a close relative like the Ellas, Ellies, Evas. Girls that look similar are also problematic. I always get them switched around for a while.

Then there are the tricky ones to pronounce. I got Farah wrong on Friday which brought hoots of laughter from the class. It's Far - rah, not Fair - rah, she pointed out. 

As I said, names are important, so I need to lock in and get it right.

Love and peace - Wozza