Mike, you weren't attacking anyone, just sharing some of that
knowledge that makes you an Ollamh. I agree with whomever told you not
to apologize.
Here's my take on this, since apparently I'm the one who
inadvertantly started the whole thing:
Mike is quite correct in what he said.
But so are Pamela and Fred. Words and concepts have not only
denotations (dictionary meanings), but also connotations (associative
meanings acquired over time). Most of us, if told something is so big or
tall, will instantly visualize our own individual touchstone to
correlate that amount. For example, if someone tells me that Soandso is
6 ft. 2 inches tall, I will instantly think, "Oh, as tall as my first
husband." (I wish I didn't, but I do). If someone tells me that a place
is a quarter-mile away from where we are, then I know how long it is
because that was the distance I used to run to catch the first of 2
buses to school in my first teaching assignment....unless, of course,
your mind works a whole lot differently than mine does.
This name thing is hard; I've had hassles with it all my life. After
all, we are living in a time of transition in that regard (I never met
anyone with a hyphenated name when I was growing up, except in
upper-class British novels). When I was in college, a girl in my dorm
who was much more into feminism than I was changed her name from Mary
Sullivan to Mary NicLynn, and delivered an impassioned lecture on
paternalism that lasted for several minutes, ending with "And every
woman should liberate herself from the male-dominated nomenclature that
is imprisoning her true self!"
Now, my mother's first name is Dorothy, better known as Dot or
Dotty, and I frankly didn't care for the sound of Barra nicDot or Barra
nicDorothy, and ours is not the heritage where Barra Dotsdotter appeals
to me. Changing to *her* maiden name is still using a male one. Being a
poet, I pay a lot of attention to words and the way they sound and
look....Besides, I love my dad a lot, and didn't want to upset him by
rejecting his surname. Just didn't feel imprisoned from my true self, I
guess. It was a lot easier to upset him in other ways! When I married my
first and very conservative husband, I went the traditional route,
partly motivated by the naive thought that that way there'd be less
chance of it being misspelled. Boy, was I wrong! (And yes, that was a
consideration, because you wouldn't believe how hard it is for most
people to get Jacob, just five little letters, correct. They want to add
s's and y's and son/sen and stein to it, or change it entirely to
Jackson). Then there was the hassle of changing back to my maiden name
when we divorced...so when I fell in love with John, and we decided to
get married, I said I was hyphenating it. John, who was not racing out
to change his, said that I didn't know who I was, yet. Yes, I did and
do: I am Barra (Scottish lovename after the Isle of Barra my
great-great-grandmother came from) Jacob (to honor my dad, who has no
grandchildren) HYPHEN McDowell (to honor my true love, my second, best,
current husband John). And (at his suggestion) I perform as Barra (see
above) the Bard (to honor the Welsh part of my heritage, and to indicate
in a sort of conntotative shorthand that I am a poet and storyteller and
novice harper). Besides, I have had several years of the hash people can
make of not only Jacob but also McDowell (sticking in an a, changing the
D to a P, the w to an n or 2, changing the whole thing to McDoughall or
MacDonald).... I specialize in Celtic tales. Jacob is not a Celtic name.
It seemed reasonable at the time to go for something fairly simple that
inidcated what I did and left room for things I hoped to do. And it
alliterates (that sound thing again).
A couple of years ago, a Roumanian woman who worked in John's dept.
happened to notice one of my flyers on his office wall. "Do you know
what the word for bard is in Roumanian?" she asked. It's bard. Fairly
widespread connotation.
Besides, when soemone asks me, "What's a bard?" I have the perfect
chance to explain the historical and popular meanings of the word.
I love Mike's explanations and erudition; we just have different
slants on things, which is fine.
--Barra
Everything will perish save love and music.--Scots Gaelic proverb
Harpers have pluck--but don't get strung out.--Barra the Bard