What's In a Name

I see they're putting up quite a row about what the name of the new royal prince is going to be. People are placing bets and they have odds charts just like they do for football and such. From what I have seen you have a much better chance of winning a bet in England than you would over here. I know we have a lot of people with double names like Tom Bob and Susan Faye, but over there they have five or six names like: James George St. John William Henry Thomas Geoffrey or Victoria Elizabeth Anne Diana Grace. Another advantage is the fact that the list of possibilities is much shorter over there. It's not like here where a baby could be named just about anything. We had a kid born last week at Harper Hospital named Treetrunk. The daddy said it had something to do with the place where he had proposed to the mother. Glad it wasn't down at the sinkhole or gravel pit. Anyway around here we must have thousands of names and in addition almost everyone has a nickname. When we go to an event and have to fill out a name tag we have to decide what name we are going to use. For church or school events it is good manners to use the name on your birth certificate. This causes confusion because a lot of people don't know you by that name. They see William on your tag and look up to see Stinky standing before them.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle