Monday, July 30, 2007

How I got my name-LANA MAE BAKER!

People have been asking me lately why my name is different. Well...originally, my mother intended to name me after Lana Turner, the movie star. Either she couldn't spell OR (more likely) she wanted to name me after Lana Turner BUT find a way to make it unique/different. Soooo, she came up with Lona. Then, my middle name was supposed to be Mae because I was born in May(why not just May, then?). Somehow, my mother decided to allow my sisters to add in another name: Tamee. So that meant smooshing my first and middle names together to make room for Tamee-the stripper name! Also, because Marcee and Karlee had ee names, they felt that I should have one too. That made it, Lonamae Tamee. My maiden name is Baker. A heck of a lot easier than Wiedewitsch-and if you ask me, that name is grounds for divorce! Well, when I filed for divorce last summer, my attorney asked me if I wanted to take back my maiden name and I said, "Of course!" Then, she also added that I could also change my name to anything I wanted, even Bozo the clown, at the same time I took my maiden name back.Aha! The opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. You see, people have called me "LowNa"(Lona) or "LahNawMay"(Lonamae) for years and I was sick to death of it! Always correcting the pronunciation or the spelling of your name is exhausting! Annoying, even! I told her I would give it some thought before changing my name forever. I did a little research by looking up my name in various name books. Come to find out, Lona with an O means alone(English meaning), wool(in Portuguese, I think), sheep(proper Spanish I believe), shit...I forget which language that was-Greek or something...anyway, nothing too flattering or desirable there. Then, I looked up Lana with an A. That means fair, beautiful, and light. OK, really-which would you choose? Even when people mispronounce Lana(LayNah) or (LanNah) I still like it better than Lona (LowNah) ! Gads! Who would ever think there would be so much to know about a name? Such far-reaching ramifications! Anyway, there was never any doubt that Tamee had to go! Either that or I was going to have to put a dancing pole in the middle of my living room! Believe me, I'm not that coordinated or flexible...So, after a lot of thought and prayer, I decided to go with Lana Mae Baker. This brings everything back into correct alignment and gives me a name I am proud of while still not altering the original pronounciation or intention that my mother had for me. A lot of people used to misspell my name Lana anyway so now they are right about it-even ahead of their time! So, now I am at peace with my name.I do, however, have the tendency to overthink things sometimes. In further research, I discovered that Lana Turner was married like 7 times, once to a gangster that her young daughter stabbed to death! She was also notorious for having affairs with her leading men. Among those listed: Clark Gable and Sean Connery. Then, one night, it occurred to me that Lana spelled backwards is Anal! Ugh! Well, nothing is perfect.But this is as close as I can get- I am beautiful, light, and fair...LANA MAE BAKER!

2 comments:

SeaSaw Mom said...

Lana - There's nothing else to say, except I LOVE YOU! What a wonderful blog entry. It's great to see your sense of humor over the whole thing.
I agonized over my childrens' names for so long that neither had a name until 12 hours after they were born, and I knew their sex at about 17 weeks into my pregnancy!!!I pored over the name meaning books and websites so that I could find something meaningful.
Sean Andrew means "Gift From God" and "Strong/Manly" (Andrew means the same thing as "Charles" - his dad's name, so that was a nod to him)
Sophia Alaina means "Wisdom" and "Light". I was rooting for Alaina as her first name in honor of 3 (out of 4 - not too bad) grandmas who all had names meaning "light" in different languages- Eileen, Evelyn, and Helen, but I love Sophia, too.
I loved the name "Noelani", which is Hawaiian for (something along the lines of...depending on where you look) heavenly girl sent from God; heavenly mist, and also "Leilani" - heavenly child. But I think (hope) Sophie won't mind our final decision, and Sean seems to be happy with his name, too.
It definitely can be "ALL IN A NAME", so I'm glad you finally have the one you want and deserve! :)
Katy

Polysyllabic Spree said...

I still don't get it...

I go back and forth, is it
Lah-nah
or
Law-na?

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