A Rose by any other name…

When I was 10 years old, my mother gave birth to her second daughter. I was given the task (for some reason) of choosing her middle name. I chose Rose.

Why Rose? My second primary school teacher was Japanese. Her name was Rose Tamaki. I liked her name. So my middle sister (as she turned out to be) got landed with that name, because of me. I wonder if she even knows that.

My mother never asked me to help her name my third sister. Turns out, my mother decided to repeat my first sister’s middle name as my third sister’s first name. Had she run out of ideas? I never did ask.

…would smell as sweet

My son was born in 1972. Being from a generation that worshipped our movie stars as idols, I couldn’t help myself. I took John Derek’s last name (Bo Derek’s husband) and made it my son’s first name. Then I gave him my middle name as his middle name.

Again, why? I wanted his initials to spell out DDT. (I have a weird sense of humour.) However, when his mother remarried, years later, his surname changed, too.

My mother said that giving him the name Derek may have been linked to his Germanic heritage. In those days, I had no idea how much of his ancestry was Germanic.

My daughter…

When it came time to name my daughter (from my second marriage), I thought I would honour two of my sisters. From the oldest one, I took her first name, Anne, and added my second sister’s middle name, Rose, combining them into Rosanna.

Since Rosanna was born in 1980, there may be some who think that she was named for the Gilda Radner character, Rosanna Rosannadanna.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/b5BKAaZrqgE?rel=0

And in some ways, they may be right (as my weird sense of humour has already shown), but the truth is slightly different.

…Rosanna…

I first heard the following record in the mid-60’s. It stayed with me ever since.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gCeY9l7Q834?rel=0

Beautiful, eh?

I suspect that this record is the real reason I chose this name for her.

…by Toto

However, in 1982, Toto released this song, and this video, which sealed the deal for me.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/qmOLtTGvsbM?rel=0

So Rosanna grew up hearing this as my anthem to her.

Hi, Rosanna. I love you, sweet child of mine.