Life in a Single Word

There are many ‘word of the day’ sites and services available to us on the Web. Some try to teach us big words, others are ‘interesting’ words and there are also ones that try to teach us a new language.

One site I hit all the time for fun is Learn Something Everyday. In an attempt to keep their fun facts short, they wrap it with a touch of a hand drawing that drives the point home. It is a good example of keeping things simple and one groups attempt to say more with fewer words. Not often a single word, but they get it down to a very few.

There is one word that sticks with you forever. I guess you could change that word, but generally speaking, it is where you are. That of course is your name… let’s go with your first name. For many people, that first name builds an image in a person’s mind before they meet you. Most likely they have met a Sally before so they have a quick picture of ‘Sally’ before the first time your paths cross. Maybe, your name will create a new impression that will erase the previous Sally for future first encounters.

While most names are given before a child has a personality or more often before they are even born. Not so much with a pet. Few folks have a name in mind and then search for a pet to match that. Most pet names are descriptive of that pet while a person’s first name is usually a relative or follows a rule like “this name should be hard to shorten into something embarrassing” .

For pet, most often a Cat or Dog, the name may just hit you when you first meet. If that doesn’t happen, here is a great site with many pet names. What I particularly enjoyed is that the site explains where the name came from, what it might mean and most often the sex of the pet it is used with. Fun to look through even if your not having a new family addition.