What's in a name?

Today's journal prompt was about my name. I like my name, I always have. My name is Rachel Nanette Bostwick. My maiden name was Beaver. When I still carried that maiden name, I didn't put my real name on-line because I knew I was vulnerable. Now I sleep beside a big man with a loaded gun, so I am not afraid to share my name with the world.

My mother gave me my name. Rachel is a name from the Bible, the beloved wife of the patriarch Jacob. My siblings and I - all 15 of us - have Biblical first names. I think Rachel was also a character that my mom liked.

Nanette was even more significant. Nanette is the diminutive form of Nancy, which is the name of both of my grandmothers. Nanette was also the middle name of my mother's sister, Tanya Nanette, who died as a young girl.

Lee and I have carried on a tradition of significant middle names. For our children, we picked first names that were attractive and middle names that meant something to us.

To Elijah, our oldest, we gave the middle name of George. George Howard Fitting was Lee's beloved grandfather who passed away months after Lee and I were married. Lee and I married as teenagers (18 and 19) and lived with his grandmother and grandfather for the first few months of our marriage. This was crucial to the success of our marriage, because by observing the unusual, humorous dynamic between Lee's grandparents, I was able to understand Lee's quirky sense of humor and backwards way of showing love. On my 20th birthday in 2001, Lee and I went out to Chocolate World to celebrate. We were going to come home and open presents. While we were gone, George had a heart attack. He never recovered even enough to say goodbye, though we opened my presents in his hospital room while he was on life support. I still have the blue and white flower shaped jewelry box that Pap picked out for me. Calling Elijah George was an easy decision that we both agreed on.

To Olivia, our second-born and only daughter,  we gave the middle name Nanette. I have always been proud of my middle name and was eager to pass the name on to my little girl. I love nicknames, but for some reason, no nickname has ever really stuck to Olivia. But when I am angry, "NANETTE!!" often slips out.

To Julius, our third-born, we gave the middle name Artorius. Artorius is the romanized form of Arthur, the legendary hero-king who my husband idolized in his childhood. King Arthur was also a hero of mine, and I had always wanted to name a child Arthur so that I could call him "Wart", like the Arthur of T. H White's Sword in the Stone. I do call Julius Wart when I want his attention!

And to Gabriel, our youngest, we gave the middle name Chester. The year before Gabe was born, we lost another family member, Uncle Jerry. Uncle Jerry was a patriach of the Bostwick clan. He had no children of his own, but treated my husband and his siblings like his own, and sheltered nearly every member of the Bostwick family at one time or another. He lost the fight against lung cancer in July of 2009. His full name was Chester Gerald Keath (this is how Lee's youngest brother CG got his name - CG's full name is C.G. Keith Bostwick - just like that, with the initials for the first name!). His family misses him very much. He always loved the children and would have loved to meet Gabriel Chester, I am certain.