The Name Game

After meeting someone, introducing yourself, exchanging names, a common statement is something like, "Oh? Huh, you don't look like a Fred" (or George, or Anne, or Henry, or Jessica, or Erin, etc). I've never really understood that, though. How can someone not look like whatever their name is. Are parents supposed to know what their child is going to look like when they grow up before choosing a name? Or is it just expected that certain types of people will name their children certain ways? But then why don't I look like my brother?

Sure, I could understand this for certain people. I'd think it'd be a fairly common occurrence for some guy to hear, "Oh? You don't look like a Sue to me". An even more common occurrence would be for Sue to get into a fistfight, probably, but I can understand people being unable to quickly accept that that face and that name could go together. But for generally common names in America, about half of the people anyone will meet could easily have that name.

Really, what is a name? It's not a descriptor, it's not based on you as a person. It's chosen for you when you're born so your parents don't have to stand on the back porch at dinner time shouting "My third son, dinner!" Without names, lots of kids would end up getting incredibly overfed. So they are very useful. But I still don't see how a person could belong to an otherwise distinguishable group, based solely on their name.

Of course, it's entirely possible that my problems come from my inability to connect /anyone's/ face with their name. Except maybe mom's cat. I don't know.. I haven't run into him in a crowd yet.

I must agree, though, that names are useful. Without them, phones would be much more difficult to use, teaching (and giving grades) would be a pain, life would be so much more difficult. But please, don't tell me that I don't match my name. I've had it for quite a while now, I think it fits fairly well. I even manage to answer to it half the time it's used. And who are you to say I don't look like a Rumplestiltskin? What does one look like, anyway?