“Dorothy!” the nurse calls out to the waiting room.
“Dorothy, here is your bank account information,” the teller says.
“Dorothy, your license has been renewed.”
In all three cases, I looked around for “Dorothy” but they were all addressing ME! Dorothy is my legal FIRST name. I go by my middle name, “Dea,” which is just as much my name as the first. I remember getting into an argument with my children who refused to believe that “Dea” was really my name. They claimed it didn’t count as a name.
Juliet declares to Romeo “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” trying to dismiss the fact that his family name was odious to her kin. But, I disagree. Shakespeare was wrong. A name matters greatly. What if Margaret Mitchell had used her title option Bugles Sang True instead of Gone with the Wind? Or, what power would have been lost if she had continued using the heroine’s working name, “Pansy,” instead of allowing the editor to change it to “Scarlett” when it was time to publish?
In real estate, choosing the right name is important to accurately describe properties.
- A koi pond is not waterfront.
- A small path beside the garage is not a side yard (as I discovered at a viewing).
- A split foyer is not a two-story home.
- In our area, full underground basements are rare but many second and third floor bonus rooms exist. What clever name are they given? Southern Basements!
So, Juliet, there is quite a bit in a name, whether it’s a descriptive term or a person’s given middle name!