Genealogists have an entire week set aside to celebrate family names and genealogy in general. The first full week of March, which this year will run from Sunday, Mar. 2 to Saturday, Mar. 8, is Celebrate Your Name Week. Each day of the week has a specific title and it’s own type of events.
On the first day, it is Namesake Day – have you ever wondered if you were named after anyone? Explore your name, and not just your first name, but any middle names and even your last name.
Is there anyone else out there, in the big wide world, who has exactly the same name with exactly the same spelling?
What is the story your name tells?
The second day is Fun Facts About Names Day – for instance, do you know what Donald Duck’s middle name is?
On a monopoly board, did you know the guy in jail actually has a name?
There are lots of fun facts about names… take some time and look some of them up on the internet. (If you don’t have internet at home, go to the library and use theirs.)
The third day is Unique Names Day – do you, or someone you know, have a unique name, or perhaps a regular name with a unique spelling? If you do, discuss it and celebrate it today.
The fourth day is Learn What Your Name Means Day – every name has a meaning.
For instance, Peter means “rock”, while Elizabeth means “my God is bountiful”.
There are lots of different sites on-line where you can look up the meanings of names, and the library has books on names that you can borrow.
The fifth day is Nametag Day, or AKA Day – perhaps the name that most people call you is not actually your legal name.
For instance, your friends may call you Chuck, but your name is actually Charles. Or perhaps it is Elisabeth, but everyone calls you Betty. If so, you may want to celebrate this day as AKA Day (AKA stands for ‘also known as”).
Or you can celebrate this day as Nametag Day by wearing a “hello, my name is…” tag for the whole day. You can have fun with this by renaming yourself, and seeing if anybody notices that the name on your tag isn’t actually yours.
The sixth day is Middle Name Pride Day – do you have a middle name, or perhaps several extra names?
Not everyone does, but a lot of people do, especially royalty. For instance, Queen Elizabeth’s middle names are Alexandra Mary.
If you have a middle name, tell it to someone who doesn’t already know it… and celebrate those middle names.
The final day of this week of celebrations is National Genealogy Day – this is a day to climb into your family tree and poke about in the branches.
If you haven’t already started a family tree, this is the perfect opportunity to start one.
Discover the names of the branches of your tree.
For more information about genealogy, drop by the Barriere Library on the first or third Friday of each month, between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., when the Barriere Genealogy Group meets.
