Nomenclature

From the Latin. Nomen: “Name” and Calare: “Call”.

“What is in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”
-Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Shakespeare… I like you and all, even though you were not who you said you where (if you are like me, you believe it was Duke Edward – but I’m bias) but in this one scenario… a bit of a dumbass thing to say.

A LOT! Is in a name.

A name says where you come from.

In Roman times, one had three names. A given one, to show individuality; a clan name, to show your group of families; and a last name, a family based name to show your ancestry. For example, had I been born in the Empire, my name might have been:

Antony Hispanus Belium.

Antony the Romanized form of my given name Anthony. Hispanus was the Romanized term for “Spaniard”. “-ium” was the term for “town”, just like anything ending in “-ton” is the shortened form of English “towns”.

See, right there, says what my parents taste was, the fact that I not only come from the Northern most part of the Empire near the border with Scotland, but also have Spanish ancestry.

On the topic of the Spanish. They gave people two last names. Why? To show a person’s pedigree. A person receives one of their Father’s last names and one of their Mother’s last name to then create a new last name combo. The trend was to pick the last name with the most weight, the most authority and money behind it.

By that definition, my mother and I got gypt on our last name. Instead of Belton Jessell, I should rather instead be Belton Andino given that I am related to the President of Honduras during WWII by the name of Carias Andino.


Those are last names. Those are planned, given to an extent in that there is a choice, but still fairly planned.


Given names give some insight into what our parents were thinking.

“Edward Anthony”

Edward: originally from the old English. It means either, “Wealthy Guard” or “Guardian of Prosperity”.

Anthony: the Anglo version of the old Roman family name Antonius which means “Worthy of Praise”

Combined, my name means:
“Guardian of prosperity who is worthy of praise”

Anyone dare called me “Ed” or “Eddie” infront of my Father, and they would IMMEDIATELY be corrected…

“I did NOT name him that, I named him Edward!”


I share a name with some of England’s most successful Kings. I also share a name with twenty saints and twenty blesseds (almost saints) of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

For a couple years after my Father died people still did not call me anything but Edward.

We had a friend of the family however named “Ed”. He was the Baloo to my Mowgli after my Father died...



I loved hanging out with Ed like you wouldn’t believe. During parties when I would be with him, I started introducing myself as Ed also when hanging out with him. Sooner or later, all my parent’s friends started calling me Ed and my parents started to. Which was alright at the time, why? Because it was in reference to Baloo of course :)

Then, right about Jr. High… I remembered my Father and his ways. It no longer was ok to go by Ed or Eddie. After all, that is NOT what my Father put on my birth certificate.

One day when I was with a group of friends, something in me just snapped, and I said, “you know what… if you guys are so friggin lazy that you can’t say my full name! FINE! Just shorten it all the way… just call me ‘E’ if you want!”

And they did…

FML

It was not so bad after all, most all of you who knew me in my High School years call me “E” for that reason. There was neither a stereotype nor a standard for me to live up to. So I went with it.

When I got to Hancock however, it was MUCH easier to get the professors there to call me the true and proper name.

SO!

For clarification:

The name of preference is “Edward”

Also acceptable that I answer to are “Anthony” and “E”. Yes, I really do answer to “Anthony”. I answer to “Eduardo” but, I much prefer it to be accompanied by “Antonio” to complete the Spanish/Italian influence in my name, “Eduardo Antonio”.

I will sometimes during a Covert Opp go by "Tony", so if I ever say "introduce me as Tony" (or something like that) that means I have some plan up my sleeve so just go with it (wink wink nudge nudge).



So why all this talk about my proper name?


Well, details are to come next time as to why… but it was a topic on my mind today.

To quote the band Everclear in their song “Father of Mine”

“…my daddy gave me a name…”