So first up, here's Catherine, which means pure. And here's one of my very favourite Catherines pointing out another not so lucky namesake...
Do let me know if you have any interesting stories about your name. I promise to be (quite) interested...
ps annoyingly on our expedition to Brick Lane, Catherine and I didn't find any Sarah streets (to be honest, I'm not sure if Catherine was looking all that hard) but anyway here's the nearest...
6 comments:
There's not much to say about my name, except that it means clear, which I like because it's an anagram of Clare anyway, and it's not a bad thing for a name to mean. Caused no end of confusion when I was studying for French and German O levels and A levels, though.
"C'est clair?" my French teacher would say, and I, off in one of my daydreams, would leap to attention, saying "Yes miss?"
Or, "Erklaren sie mich," my German teacher would say, to similar effect.
Sheep say my name a lot, too. There's been a few times when I've been out walking in the wilds with my family, we've got separated, and I've become suddenly convinced that I can hear my dad or my sister lying bruised and bloody at the bottom of a cliff and shouting plaintively, "Claaaare!"
I could even say it myself when only a few days old. Apparently my parents hadn't decided between Clare and Alice, but then I got all upset, started crying, and demanded that they choose Clare. "Claaaaaare!" I cried.
But anyway. Regarding street signs. I have a "Clare Road" sign at the top of my stairs, just so you know whose steps you are climbing. The road itself is a few streets away, and I found its sign, detached, in the wrong place, just sitting there staring at me in the middle of the pavement. Well, I had to take it home with me. Didn't I?
(Erklaren should have an umlaut on the A in the middle, and is pronounced "Air-Clare-un")
(and "Erklaren sie mich" means "Explain it to me" or more literally, "Make things clear for me" whereas "C'est clair?" means "Is that clear?")
Pure, I'm not (obviously) but maybe that's because mine is a different spelling. My father called me 'Katy', I've one friend who still calls me Kathy and has never noticed the way I sign Christmas cards in the 28 years I've known her and I had one person who called me 'fryn' which was different. Mostly, though, I almost have to apologise for not wanting to shorten it and always have to spell it out to anyone in an official capacity. What with that and the two 's's on my surname, I really do feel like quite a deviant. Definitely not pure.
I take great pleasure in telling people that the only people who use 'Nik' as a name are Native Americans. More specifically, the Ojibwa. It means 'goose'.
N
I'm a Kathleen. Means 'pure little one' I believe. Am as pure as the driven slush, as Mae West or someone once said.
I'm Kath to everyone, Kathy to my mum only, and Kathleen when writing and to my hubby when he's pissed off with me.
I just love the idea of the sheep saying 'Clare'. I live just by the South Downs, where sheep graze, and she's right - they're calling her! Being called Catherine is a huge moral responsibility, obviously. I'm very pure when it comes to certain matters - coloured/ flavoured vodka is a vile, corrupt brew and will never pass my lips.
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