Thanks for Asking! (literally)

I guess we're in The Back Nine of NaBloPoMo, and winter has arrived here in Ontario, so the fact that my blog vigour is flagging somewhat is not terribly surprising. I do have a few posts that I worked on ahead of time, but for today I'm going to answer questions about the names posts, because it's an easy post and also because I see that it's a little weird that I just dropped that fact about my dad's last name and didn't elaborate.

Not that there's a whole lot more to tell, but I do agree that it's unusual, except that it was 1940 and my grandparents lived in Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan, which is identified as a 'hamlet', is less than a 100 km south of the Northwest Territories with a sub-arctic climate, and in the 2021 census had a recorded population of 219. They were absolutely literate - my grandfather was a voracious reader, as is my father - but I just don't think anyone had the energy to get exercised about this clerical error. As far as I know it never caused any issues (definitely fewer than having to give Angus "Robert" as a first name, not that I'm bitter and bring this up every chance I get). One of my husband's favourite stories about my dad is that when he moved to the city for high school he thought it was weird seeing people on bicycles in the streets in the summer - the only time they could ride bikes in Stony was in winter when the river froze.

San's question about whether Angus liked his name also made me stop and think - Eve has stated on more than one occasion that she likes her name, which makes me so happy, and I knew that Angus had talked about people liking his name in baseball, but I don't think I had ever actually asked him. So I texted him, and this is how that went.

I'm really happy San asked! Two for two how cool is that? I don't have strong feelings about my own name, particularly since family lore is that I was named after, not a cherished relative or literary reference, but Lady Allison who was .... a horse. 

We would get talking about baby names, unsurprisingly, in playgroup. Collette named her first boy Jacob and the second one Ben, and both turned out to be number one name choices in that year - if I remember correctly she had had the name Jacob as a favourite forever, and caved to her husband on Ben, so she was less than thrilled in both cases. I guess I was kind of shooting for names that would be recognizable but wouldn't have four in every class, although who cares, really. I love the name Emma and in Angus's grade two class there were only six girls and half were named Emma - I still love it. I didn't find out the gender for either kid, but I was pretty set on Angus for a boy. Rachel or Isabel were strong contenders for a girl, but when Eve was born suddenly I thought she was an Eve. I think she's only ever met one of two other Eves (there were a few more Evas). Obviously if Angus was on the east coast or in Scotland he'd be one among many. As it is, it's just him and Jody's bunny.