Seriously, doesn’t the media have anything better to do than
to worry about whether Ben Carson’s mother’s name is Sonya or Johnnie? How ridiculous.
When I met a new family in our neighborhood years ago, I was
amused to learn that only one person in the family of four went by his/her real
name. At some point, three of them
decided they didn’t like their names and began going by something else. The mother whose name was Sarah had gone
through a hippie phase as a young woman and taken the name Heather. I’m not sure of the reasons for the other
three, but they all thought it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
In my own family, my father’s name was a great source of
confusion. He was told that his name was
Charles Frederick and during his young life went by C. Frederick with the
nickname of Fritz. When he entered the
Army during World War II, he was informed that he could not go by a first
initial and middle name. They changed
his name to Charles F. His friends then
began to call him Charlie. When he
retired decades later, he was required to submit a copy of his birth
certificate to obtain his pension. He
had never seen it. He sent for a copy
and was stunned to discover that his name was actually Frederick Charles. He then began to use Frederick C. on
documents.
After Dad died, when I tried to settle his affairs, I had to
submit to the court a notarized affidavit describing why he had documents under
the names Frederick C., Charles F. and C. Frederick. Fortunately, no relevant documents used Fritz
or Charlie.
Imagine my brother’s confusion, thinking he was Charles F.
Jr. most of his life, and discovering there was actually no Charles F. Sr.
No matter….he has gone his whole life by Bud.
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