Pronounced like Erin with a 'y' (as in y-oghurt).
I hated, hated, hated that name for a long time.
Obviously my parents loved it to bits.
They were huge fans of unusual names and my sister and I were never going to be Sarah or Amanda or Lisa... you catch my drift.
Yeran..
I don't mind it so much now...
But at school. It was hell to have my name.
Across the playground they would yell: "Urine!" and I would cringe, hang my head as I felt my cheeks start to burn and my eyes well up with tears. Yeah I know, what a sensitive little princess I was to let that get to me. But it did. I mean if they had teased me about my hair, I could change that. I couldn't change my name.
Yeran.
It does fit me though.
It always did.
It's unusual. I am unusual.
I guess it just exacerbated my uniqueness. Which was not cool back in the Eighties. Hey maybe it's still not cool. Being different still seems to rub people up the wrong way, make them feel uncomfortable and 'induce' judgement.
With age and experience I have embraced my original, individual, madcap, crazy-ass self. And I've noticed so have a lot of people in the blogging world; they don't mind letting their 'freak flag fly', they're not afraid to 'go there' and I love it!!!
Anyways I'm off track as usual. Seriously this is what a conversation with me is like. It is certainly not linear, just like my blog.. I like to think I'm an iPod on random.
Back to names...
When I was first pregnant with Liam, I had been discussing names with Knight in Shining Armour. First I suggested 'River', he gave me a look of "WTF?", and I responded: "You know, as in the actor River Phoenix". He paused. "Hmm I don't mind Phoenix-". "Done!" I quickly pounced on the opportunity for hubby to agree with an unusual name.
A few weeks prior to the 20 week ultrasound, the Knight says: "I don't think I can name my son that. Phoenix. Nah too weird. Couldn't do it to him. How about William?"
"Hell no!". I was not having a boring name (*disclaimer: I really don't think William is a boring name.. I kind of like it, but I had my head filled with the ideas of my children being as weird as me and well William ain't on the weird side).
"How about we compromise?" I offered him: "How about we have the end of William? As in Liam?"
"Done!" I think hubby pounced on it so fast because it was normal enough for him to live with and I wasn't going to be given the chance to come up with some other fandangled f***ed up names (*disclaimer: I am not saying any names are f***ed up, my husband is, so get upset with him if you named your child Phoenix).
Funnily enough I am glad my husband is conservative. Otherwise we would have some names that we might very much regret naming our children.
I think my mum and dad only regreted naming me Yeran whenever I said "I hate my name!".
"But we love it Yeran"
"You don't get called urine. I do!"
Then my mum proceeded to tell me all the names she got called at school due to her surname.
Kids will pick on anything.
But I am hoping by choosing the names I did for my children, that their chances of being picked on might be slightly reduced. Maybe.
Knight in Shining Armour and I have tested the names out. Although I feel Jack has already copped it all from us. We titter when we say "When I dropped Jack off...haha Jack off haha", yep because we are mature like that. I guess we are getting him prepared for school in that respect. He would have heard it all before and it would be water off a duck's back.. or not. Either way, it's giving us a giggle.
I don't know whether Evangeline's name can be bastardised. I am sure some smart arse kid will come up with something. Evy will learn karate...
Who knew names could be so important to mull over! But they are important. A name is for life. It will be on your headstone. It will be screamed at a disobedient child. It will be screamed out in a hot and sweaty bed. We all want a name worthy of that now don't we?!?
7 comments:
I think you have a beautiful name, Yeran! It's nice to have something distinctive and unique, just like you! My name (Jessica) would not normally be deemed unusual, but it's unheard of for a Greek girl! My parents had a rebellious black-listed Greek Orthodox priest baptise me in his Greek church, or else no other priest would have christened me with that name, it was bordeing on blasphemous! Your boys, Liam and Jack have lovely names, but my favourite would have to be Evangeline. I just adore that name xxx
Hey Yeran, I love this post. I also love 'different' names. My first son was always going to be called River. My hubby didnt agree to that so our compromise was phoenix as a middle name. I kinda like it as a first name, much to many's disgust. So in our family we have Jai Phoenix, Aria Monique, Zafirah Odette, Veruca Rani & Levi Kaelan. We get some strange looks but I dont care, and so far neither do our kids. Ive had a couple of doctors tell me that Veruca means wart, but 99% of people think its after Charlie & the Choc Factory.
Like you, I think they will appreciate it more when they're older.
Jess: thank you sweetheart <3 my favourite is Evangeline too and you know what? It's GREEK!!! ;-) How cool is that =)I always loved the name Jessica <3
Jac: Thanks hun =) I thought I'd go a light-hearted post tonight ;-) I had Levi on my list of names I loved too!! But alas Mr Conservative put his foot down ;-(
I understand your pain of having an unusual name at school - i was always the only Kirsty and kept getting Thirsty Kirsty! It's often misspelt or mispronounced Kristy (understandable but annoying!) and at high school there was a Kirsty, a Kristy and a Keirsty so we were collectively called KeirstyKristyKirsty!
I like Yeran, though and Evangeline was on our lists for girl names too (but we could never have Jack - our last name is Russell - a recipe for bullying and teasing right there!)
hehehehe Jack Russell.. yep that'd be a no go for sure lol.
How cool Evangeline was on your list! I'm curious as to what else was on your list ;-) I had Sapphire Lilly and a few other uber girly names =)
Thanks for coming to visit me! This is a lovely post, like the part about the look your hubby gave you. It was the same for us all the names I liked which I had when we were travelling he hated! He ended up naming our first daughter before I even go back to the room after the c-section! She suits it though :)
I love all the talk of and thought about names... Our boys have uncommon names - Bowie and Jesse. We get "are you David Bowie fans?" all the time... And then, "Jesse? How do you spell that?"... At my school there were gazillions of Kates so not much teasing about that but my surname lent itself to manipulation. Kids are awful no matter what. Yeran is a gorgeous name.
Post a Comment