Thursday, January 14, 2010

Writer's Workshop: What's in a Name?

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Mama Kats writers workshop

3.) What’s in YOUR name? What does it mean? Why was it given to you? etc..

LYNN




From an English surname which was derived from Welsh llyn "lake". Before the start of the 20th century it was primarily used for boys, but it has since come to be more common for girls. In some cases it may be thought of as a short form of LINDA or names which end in lyn or line.


Interesting that is was originally primarily a boys name. I've always thought of it more of a girl's name. I guess cuz I'm a girl! The only male I've ever heard of with the name is Lynn Swann, the former football player.

And as a far as it being short for LINDA........nope, uh-uh, don't you dare call me Linda! Don't like it. Also, I remember I once worked with someone named Linda and she wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyway, one night another coworker called me Linda rather than Lynn and I just gave him a dirty look and said "My name is Lynn......no duh!" He laughed and never did it again.

My mom had really wanted to name me Karyn and spell it with the "y" to be different but my dad didn't like that idea. She tried to convince him but he wouldn't go for it so he suggested Lynn and my mom gave in and agreed to that.

It's warped into all sorts of nicknames over the years too. Lynnie, Lynnie-rie, Ninnie-rie, La-lu, Lar, (many of these because of my younger brother and cousins who couldn't quite pronounce it when they were little). I know weird hey?

There was Lenn (that one drove me nuts, my cousin for some reason developed and accent when she said my name!), Lyndsay.........Lyndsay Wagner (my dad used to call me that because of the bionic woman) and Lentil (given to me by my brother).

I guess I like my name. Never really given it much thought so I guess I don't hate it. Because if you hate it then you give it thought! The only thing that bothered me for a while as a kid was that it wasn't a longer name that you could shorten for a nickname......hence the longer or weird formations above.




8 comments:

Christy AKA Trippin' Mama said...

I when to school with a guy named Lynn. There were also 3 girls named Lynn in that class. Never understood why he didn't go by a middle name or something, but it never seemed to bother him. Maybe because he was 6' 2", gorgeous and captain of the football team? :-)

Christy

erica said...

I know a guy named Lynn too. I always think of it as a girl name though.

I also know a man named Carole. Yeah... he goes by a nickname!

Shannon said...

My dad's middle name is Lynn!

SabrinaTheArizonaDesertRose said...
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SabrinaTheArizonaDesertRose said...

Hiya: had a typo so I'll try again...

Anyway, I liked this entry. I know of place names with Lynn (or variations). There's a city called Lynn, Massachusetts and the next county south of where I live is Linn County, Oregon

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Angie Vik said...

My husband's middle name is Linn. We gave one of our daughters his middle name. So she has what people think is a girl's middle name but she was named after her Dad.