Well-timed request, HC. I have just this morning reached what may end up being the final decision. This is by no means yet conclusive. I'm going to try it out for a while and see how it fares.
For the past few days I've been leaning more and more towards...
Mara.
I know you don't like it, HC, but it just seems to fit, somehow. I think I look like a Mara. It suits me.
It's unusual without being wierd,
elegant without being pretentious,
feminine but not cutesy.
It can't be shortened to anything stupid,
it's easily spelled and pronounced.
My flatmates and I sat around at lunch today and discussed it. B reckoned I should imagine how it would be to introduce myself as Mara in a variety of scenarios, ie at the pub, at a job interview, etc. And I should also imagine how it would sound to me if a man ever asked me "Mara, will you marry me?"
And I must admit, I think it works.
Here's the thing: my middle name and surname both begin with "Ma." So Mara Marie Ma----- just doesn't cut it.
BUT!
What if I change my middle name? Swap Marie (which is useless) for Mara? I won't have to drop Stephanie, so there's no risk of hurting my dad's feelings (whatever else he may say), and I won't hurt my mom (Mary), buecause Mara, like Marie, is just another variation of Mary. PLUS it makes the paperwork a bit easier, bucause most of my financial institutions et cetera only have my middle initial on file anyway, and that won't change. Easy peasy! And lots of people use their middle names for everyday address.
It'll still be a pain in the ass to change it legally, what with my passport and visa and all. I'll have to see what's involved in that. I'd like to do it before I graduate here, so that my diploma will have my new name on it, but that may not be possible. We'll see.
And I won't demand that anyone who already knows me as Stephanie suddenly do a 180 and start calling me Mara. I can understand why people would find that difficult. If you want to, cool. If not, no worries.
My flatmates said they would make an effort to call me Mara for a week so I can try it on, see if I still like it in 7 days time, but I reckon i will. It's comfortable.
Thoughts? Feedback? Lay it on me!
8 comments:
very good! i like it! mara sounds good. plus its celtic without being LOTR-goofy, it's not everyday and it's short.
anyway I was thinking, if your last name was 'marshal' and you chose 'field' for a first name, that would kind of, um, suck.
not if you decide to join the army!
In any case - so I'm not keen on Mara. Like it matters!! Besides which, as I pointed out earlier - names take on the characteristics of their owners so give me time and the only thing I'll associate with the name Mara is you, which will completely turn around my opinion of the name to loving it!
I think its a brilliant idea to use Mara as your middle name and then use your middle name as your everyday name. You're right - loads of people do it. Jboy isn't really called Jboy (well obviously!) but it is his middle name - it was just used from birth (actually his family have a bit of a thing about using middle names as first names - as his parents did the same to his brothers as well - gave them a first name that's never used and used the middle name for everyday - obviously someones going to ask "why not just give them the middle name as the first name in the first place?" answer - it sounds better when you say them if they're that way round...)
And the trial period is a great idea too. Then you can get used to it and see if it really suits you.
Of course you do realise that you now have to do the French thing and have a birthday and a name day so you'll have to tell everyone that you expect presents on the 19th of May as well as on your birthday from now on and you'll need to read 2 horoscopes as well!
Can I be the voice of dissent?
Okay then...
It sounds like something that you'd find in close proximity to Seamus, Ronan, Paddy and Mick. Seamus Mara, Ronan O'Mara, Paddy McMara, Mick Mara of Munster.
For me it sounds like something that just came down off the bog.
'Kathleen Mara, her of the wild Donegal eyes and the flashing Munster fire, thighs like proud stallions rampaging across the green, green, grass of our emerald isle home where the days are long and the nights are dark and the time drips slow, slow, slow like warm honey melting from the spoon on warm day when the air is full of summer and the summer is full of dreams. Ah Kathleen, colleen, sweet child of the mountain rock and the boggy fern, how I remember...' said Seamus Heaney today.
I like 'insert original name here'. I like 'insert shortened original name here.'
Hmmm?
The name "Mara" brings to your mind the image of a hot chick with thighs like rampaging stallions, and you see this as a bad thing? Dude, I'm counting that comment as one vote in favor of!
I like Mara a lot. I do like names ending in 'a'.
But - there is a minor pronounciation problem. Here in the UK it'd be pronounced Maa-ra, but surely in the UK they'd say May-ra?
BTW I'm Irish and the only 'Mara' I've ever met was Italian. In Ireland we have 'Maura' and 'Moira' but not 'Mara'.
It's pretty common as a second name from what I can tell looking at the 'phone book. It tends to have O' and Mc in front of it mind.
Isn't there a paradox in being a girl with thighs like proud stallions? Stallions having willies and all...
not when the girl in question is a, a competitive rower who's built her career on having giant, horse-like thighs and b, has been accused (on more than one occassion) of having significantly more testosterone than the average male. *cough*
I still like Tanwen. Or Gwen. Oh well. Your choice. Mind you, if you like it, who cares what anyone else thinks?
Post a Comment