Post your DCs names and we'll tell you what we assume about you. Snark is obviously expected!
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Anonymous
Thomas James Mary Catherine Charles Annie Thomas (Hebrew for twin; popular throughout medieval Europe and took off in England after the Norman conquest in 11th century) James (Hebrew for supplanter) Mary Catherine (two ancient names in many languages meaning beloved and innocent) Charles (old English from Ceorl meaning “free man”) Annie (English meaning Grace, open and optimistic. The sun’ll come out tomorrow, just you see) Like Kate Middleton, your family traces its lineage back to the eighteenth century British novelist Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817). You have read all of the novels of your great aunt six generations removed: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), and even Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, Two of your sons are named for both uncles and Jane Austen’s brothers: James (1765–1819) and Charles John (1779–1852). Your oldest Thomas, is named for the brilliant patron saint of academics, St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who is venerated in the Anglican Communion as well as the Roman Catholic Church. His Summa Theologiae paved the way for Christians to embrace both the tenets of their faith and to follow rigorous and logical scientific thinking. Your brainy medical husband appreciates his historical contributions. Mary Catherine is named for Mary and Catherine Bennet in your favorite Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice. You hope the combination would pay tribute to both methodical steadfastness of Mary and the enthusiastic abandon of Catherine. Your family’s guilty pleasure is that you all thoroughly enjoyed the critically panned 2016 interpretation of your fave novel: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You come from a long line of Anglican ministers and family physicians. Your grandfather was invited by the international Red Cross to serve in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) after it was the first country to gain independence from colonial powers in 1957. Your grandfather was invited to an audience with Queen Elizabeth II during her controversial trip to Ghana in 1961 and to meet the African American leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X when they visited Ghana during the heady early days of independence with high hopes for pan Africanism. In that era doctors were held in high regard, and even more so in countries where medical professionals were in such short supply. Also although Africans deeply resented all colonial rulers, the a British were widely regarded as the lesser of many evils (the worst being the Belgians in Congo). Your family longed for England and became more British than the British while also enjoying having many staff to help with mundane domestic work. You grew up having high tea every afternoon at 4 pm and oddly also referring to even dinner as tea. However, you were all sent to boarding schools in Britain for High School and you and your siblings stayed on for University in the homeland. You were surprised that so few treated high tea like a religious ceremony as you were used to. You met your husband at Oxford. Your hubby, a Rhodes Scholar around the same time as a Rachel Maddow was, hoped to discover something akin to penicillin as the notable Rhodes Scholar and Nobel prize winner Howard Florey did. He is now high up at the National Institute of Health, the nation’s leading medical research agency. However, he is usually peddling fast under water and not going very far as he corrects endless public COVID misinformation, helps public health officials to navigate death threats from Q Anon conspiracy theorists and helps scientists to pack up their painstaking research as quickly as possible when Congress fails to authorize the necessary budget to keep the shop open. St Thomas Aquinas have mercy on us! |
Anonymous
Whoops Annie (English meaning Grace, open and optimistic) was the surprise baby and named for the unexpected joy she brings to your family. |
Anonymous
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Addison
Madison Caleb Sabastian Olivia Lola Chloe |
Anonymous
| Maeve, Henry, and Grace |
Anonymous
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Luke
Mara Olivia |
Anonymous
| Henry and Helene |
Anonymous
Cecilia (Latin for blind, the female form of Cecil. Some say it means lily of heaven, or a way to blind men. Others say it means of Celo or Heaven. In Hebrew it means a rock. Cecilia is a royal name with a divine connection and several musical links. St Cecilia is the Catholic patron Saint of both blindness and music. The earliest stories of St Cecilia stem from the Golden Legend, a 13th century anthology of saints lives. Geoffrey Chaucer describes St Cecilia’s life in the Second Nun’s Tale from the Canterbury Tales in close association with the Lilly and the Rose, medieval code for good person talking. She died a Christian martyr who had been born into a wealthy privileged family in second century Rome, along with her husband Valerian whom she had converted, and his brother Tiburtius. She died refusing to denounce Christianity but legend has it it took three days and multiple harrowing murder methods for the execution to succeed, and she demanded a church be erected at the site of her execution and then she died. It was not until the fifteenth century that she became associated with music, not as just a sensuous art, but as a revelation of divine order. Raphael’s “Ectasy of Cecilia” (1515j was the first to depict St. Cecilia holding an organ surrounded by saints. It just takes one great artist to get things going (especially when 90% of the population are illiterate), and so then the legendary reputation of Cecilia, patron Saint for music, took off. But really, popular symbols are popular symbols, and what does it matter if Cecilia’s divine association with music is a product of sixteenth century clamoring for more female saints? Your family on both sides come from a long line of musicians of all genres and instruments. Country, opera, classical, pop, rock, folk, indie, jazz, techno pop, disco, and more. Your family lives and breathes for music. You studied flute at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and work as a liaison between the National Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,. You advocated tirelessly for the hard working musicians of the NPO who toil for years for their craft. You were outraged after the Kennedy Center stopped paying all the NPO musicians in March 2020, days after being awarded $25 million in corona virus aid at the beginning of the Pandemic. You prayed to Saint Cecilia for this worthy outcome to lead the blind into new pastures of liveable wages for top musicians in the nation’s Capitol. In April you helped the NPO to reach a compromise to avoid the furloughs. Your daughter Cecilia is named for St Cecilia. She plays cello with great sensitivity in the Capitol Symphonic youth orchestra. She groans whenever people tell her bad cello jokes such as: “How does Yo Yo Ma answer the phone?” “Cello” |
Anonymous
Parisa (Persian and Hindu for fairy like) You are an Iranian Muslim family and Parisa is your lithe pride and joy. The associated lucky number for Parisa is one, and you decided to stop at one child. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the US, and your family is no exception. You have extended family who are thriving in business, academia, science, the arts and entertainment. Your family arrived after 1979, following the Iranian Revolution and fall of the Persian Monarchy. They originally settled in LA California in the Tehrangeles community. Now, 1,500,000 Iranians who were born in Iran are living in the US. This number does not even include US born Iranians and other groups with Iranian ancestors. There is a lot of pressure in your family to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or tech entrepreneur. Both you and your husband have advanced degrees and work for Amazon at their new head quarters in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. Your favorite movie is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The dad claiming that everything good originated in Greece and the kids should be proud to be Greek is almost exactly what you heard growing up about Iran being the original cradle of civilization. Also instead of taking moussaka left overs for school lunch, you had to take the far stranger and smellier gharmeh sabzi. You attended Persian classes on the weekends and no one could pronounce your name. Hence, you and your husband chose a Persian name that is easy for most people to pronounce, with a whimsical meaning. You want your daughter to feel connected to her heritage but free to pursue life goals of her own choosing. You may find it hard to accept if she goes into country music though. The melodramatic lyrics and twangy simple melodies just make little sense to you. Who knows, Nashville may be ready for Parisa by now … |
Anonymous
Pretty impressive!! Thank you 
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Anonymous
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Marisa
Mallory Marnie |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Bella: Italian for Beautiful, God Is My Oath. Bella is related to the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin words for beautiful, and the name Belle, meaning beautiful in French. Zoe: Greek origin meaning "life." The name originated when Alexandrian Jews translated the name Eve in the third century to its equivalent: Zoe. Popular with early Christians, Zoe was used as far back as the Roman classical period. You are Greek American creative entrepreneurs based in MacLean, Virginia. You created the Upmarket Zoe & Bella intimate sleep wear fashion design label sold on poshmark.com and Amazon.com. Naturally, it is named for your beloved daughters. You hoped to expand your exclusive but fun designs for PJs into a clothes, shoes and jewelry empire of beautiful but accessible everyday attire. You auditioned for Shark Tank and hoped to snag an offer from Lori Greiner. Greiner had started with one idea and turned it into a multi-million dollar international brand, like you hoped to do. She created over 500 products, and currently holds over 120 U.S. and international patents. Greiner has hosted her own show, Clever & Unique Creations by Lori Greiner, for 18 years. Lori says she can tell instantly if a product is a "hero or a zero.” Your second shark pick would have been Emma Grede, the CEO and co-founder of Good American, “the first fully inclusive fashion brand that celebrates all dimensions of female power.” [hmm?] In 2016, Grede launched Good American with Khloé Kardashian to “empower all women to celebrate their bodies with confidence and offer high-quality designs in all sizes”. [barfing permitted]. Grede impressively expanded a denim launch into an iconic inclusive fashion line of denim, ready-to-wear, swim, shoes and activewear even though perfect bodies are required for best effect. Sadly, you were understandably nervous during your shark tank presentation and none of the sharks were willing to give you $500,000 for 10% share of your company. The numbers did not add up and the women sharks did not get your vision for Zoe & Bella expanding into a much needed niche for lively beauty: elegant but fun-loving attire. No matter, sales are doing quite well without a brick and mortar store distribution thanks to online sales being popular. Your Zoe and Belle continue to inspire your light hearted, sweet designs. They attend a prestigious private school in NOVA but have not are been overly anxious since the Pandemic thanks to the warmth of their extended Greek American family. |
Anonymous
| Claire |
Anonymous
Felix is a masculine given name that stems from Latin felix [ˈfeːliːks] (genitive felicis [feːˈliːkɪs]) and means "happy" or "lucky". Its female form is Felicity. You are of Dutch heritage and grew up in a village near Amsterdam. You studied for a masters of business economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and for a PhD in economics and international trade at The Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.). You met your Czech of Chinese descent wife at Utrecht University, and thankfully she does not expect you to master either of her mother tongues. You applied to international organizations in the US at the same time as you were both up for the adventures. Your wife was contracted as a junior economist at the IMF while you took longer to secure a consultancy at the World Bank IFC. You are both too busy for raising more than one child. You value happiness (Dutch children rank as the happiest youth in the world) while your wife’s Chinese culture values auspicious signs and good fortune. Hence, Felix was the obvious choice for your one child as it combines happiness and good fortune in one easy mouthful. In German, Dutch, Czech, Slovenian, Romanian and Scandinavian languages the form "Felix" is the same as English. Even though in French, Hungarian, Slovak, Portuguese and Spanish it is written with an acute accent, "Félix", and in Catalan it is written with a grave accent, "Fèlix"., it is still fairly straightforward for most of your expat and American friends to pronounce. You are quite proud of the fact that In 2013, Unicef released a ‘report card’ that concluded that Dutch children are the happiest of all, based on five categories: material wellbeing, health and safety, education, behaviors and risks, housing and environment. The Netherlands scored highest in both behaviors and risks and education, and its excellent scores in the other categories put it firmly in the leading position, followed by four Scandinavian countries. (The United States was at the bottom, worse than Greece but better than Lithuania.) Dutch children vouched for their own happiness, with 95 percent “reporting a high level of life satisfaction.” You are somewhat concerned about Felix growing up in the US but feel that the DMV area is a far cry from Mississippi, Alabama and other highly polarized places where there are seemingly endless stories of people who mocked Covid-19 vaccines before eventually dying from the disease. You figure that your family will probably not have to worry about high rates of unwanted teen pregnancies and mass gun shootings at the elite Washington International School. You are going to do your best to raise Felix in Dutch ways while your wife is somewhat of a Tiger Mother so the end result may be something closer to typical American parenting anyway. You have already started teaching Felix about “the birds and the bees”like Dutch kids who have generally healthy senses of their own body images and very low unwanted teen pregnancy rates. You encourage Playing instead of doing homework, like where you grew up. In the Netherlands, play is encouraged and considered an important part of childhood development. After hours of playing, like other Dutch parents your mantra is rust (rest), regelmaat (regularity), and reinheid (cleanliness). Your wife on the other hand, encourages Felix to do 2-3 hours of homework a night and to complete his set piano practice, so he ends up doing closer to the Middle School norm for this area, being 1-2 hours. Fortunately, the IMF and World Bank allow for paternal leave for fathers to help take care of sick children and they provide child benefit packages. You are grateful to have benefits that are the norm in Europe and find it sad that your American friends are envious of benefits that are standard in most other wealthy countries. You hope that will change one day, but it does not look likely in the current polarized landscape. You think that it is cool that Felix is growing up in such a diverse and vibrant area. |
Anonymous
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Peter |