WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 54, 5 July 1940, Page 42

WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS

Dear Friends, Have you ever thought about names -and the tremendous responsibility which parents have towards children in labelling them for life? A name is so very important, particularly in a psychological sense. A ludicrous name, for example, can give some unfortunate child an inferiority complex for life. School days are formative days, when impressions are made that will endure for life. Children are distressingly honest and ruthless in their opinions. They have no compunction in making little Horatio’s life a misery-just because his parents were so thoughtless as to label him with such a name. Little Horatio comes to look on his name as a definite drawback; to be secretly, then openly, ashamed of it, and that is later to deve‘lop into a complex that will colour his future. I am reminded of a Negro woman a friend of mine came across during a visit to the United States. She was a Mrs. Esmy Jackson, and she had two kinky-haired boys. One was christened Meningitis (Menny), the other Tonsilitis (Tonny), and a third, a daughter, just born, was to be christened Appendicitis (Pendy). What a dreadful packet of ills? Mrs. Esmy Jackson perhaps can be excused, but we ourselves are not far behind. Each age or era brings it crop ‘of misnomers. One Australian girl I knew of answered to the dreadful name of Referendum. She had been born during the course of a political ballot.

As unlucky souvenir-holders of the Boer War, there are many sedate, middleaged "Mafekings" in circulation to-day. But the Great War was worse. Verdun, Mons, Villiers, Quentin, and hosts of others were bestowed willy-nilly on hapless infants -- who now blush to hear themselves named. One wonders what the present war will bring forth. Without doubt, a flourishing crop of Narviks, Dunkirks, Namurs, and the like. Our glamorous Princess Marina has been perpetuated for decades to come, Thousands of baby girls born at the time of her marriage to Prince George commemorated the occasion by adopting her name. Here, however, one can make no quarrel. : The trouble is that so many outside factors have to be considered. Maybe there is a rich Aunt or Uncle to be mollified-as though calling little Eustace after him will make Eustace love Uncle any more. He is more likely to nurse a secret and lasting grudge. Such a rich Uncle, living in South America, had once to be consulted before a baby’girl could be christened in New Zealand. After due deliberation there arrived his decision. ‘He had hoped for the newcomer to be a boy,. but as it was a girl it could not be helped. She should be called Ernestina-the nearest approach to his own name-Ernest. So poor Ernestina wanders loose round New Zealand to-day. Names that lend themselves to absurd diminutives should also be avoided. Every Mother wants her daughter’ to grow up into a lovely, dazzling creature, and how can an "Em" or a "Liz" ever hope to reach those heights? A boy may have some chance of escape, ,but a girl -never. Yours Cordially,

Cynthia