To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What’s in a name? More than 150 years ago, when European surveyors were attempting to map the primary geological features on earth, they did their best to retain the names that locals had historically assigned to particular mountains, rivers, and valleys. The exception was an unusually high mountain in the Himalayas that… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The world of TV sports provides a window into a fascinating sociological phenomenon. The parents of younger American generations are going out of their way to give their kids distinctive names. We’re talking about Millennials (children born 1980-1994), Gen Z (1995-2012), and the newly dubbed Polars (2013-2029), who won’t be… Read more »
Names were serious business in the ancient world. They were thought to reveal something of the character, identity, and even the destiny of those who bore them. That’s rarely the case in modern Western culture. Every few years I publicly reveal what the “W” of my middle name stands for. Back in the 1950’s, if my parents had been able… Read more »
When it comes to receiving meaningful names, some of us are winners. Others are losers. Then there’s the family with both a Winner and a Loser. In 1958 Robert Lane and his wife, who lived in public housing in Harlem, New York City, became parents of their sixth child. Dad, in a joyful mood, decided to name his little boy… Read more »
