joyful2beeblogs

My parents chose great names for us four kids. My first name is Melodie. Moma loved music, as well as Daddy. She learned to play the piano so well that she played for her father, who was the choir director in their church. I don’t know why they used “ie” instead of “y” at the end of Melodie, though.

Moma wanted to call me Melodie instead of my second name, “Elaine.” But my father’s mother told her that she should call me Elaine because it would sound nicer when she called me to come inside. So I ended up going with my second name.

I thought it was kind of picky, but my grandfather came from Greece, and Helen was my aunt’s name. (Helen was the Anglicized name for Elena, which means “Light” in Greek.)

My sister’s name was Helen Dawn. Also, a beautiful name. So I grew up being called Elaine, and she ended up being called Dawn.

The kind of nice thing about my names was that “music” and “light” were positive, meaningful names, to go with our family’s last name: Theodore which in Greek means “Gift of God.”

My brother was given our father’s name, James. My youngest sister was given our mother’s first name, Betty. I was twelve when she was born. I suggested Michele for her second name. When my parents spoke the name “Betty Michele;” it sounded beautiful when it was strung together. Also, mother’s second name was Mozelle. So Michelle was a similar sounding name for our youngest sister.

I am thankful that we all had good names that sounded pleasant on the tongue and had good meanings.