What's in a name

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m not the first. With a name like Scott Stevens, I can’t expect it to be very unique. I love my name, but Scott, and Stevens are both very common names. Put them together and it doesn’t get much better.

But that’s not the worst part.

I always liked having a famous athlete share my name growing up, even if it was a hockey player. That just meant I could never Google my own name like most people and see what came up. But that was a minor sacrifice. I could live with that.

But it gets worse.

Most people can’t say they are the only ones in the world with their full name. A few more in their own country, and again in their own state. But what about their own family? You’d think everyone should at least be unique among family members. Not including deceased members, and making an exception for George Foreman’s children.

That’s what most people don’t know about me.

I’m not even the first Scott in my own family.

I have a hand-me-down name from my older brother.

I’m sure if my mom ever reads this, she’ll have some sort of explanation. But there may always be some scar tissue.

My older brother is named Nathan Scott Stevens. My parents wanted both of those names for their boy. But when they ended up having another boy just three years later, they decided they could actually use Scott as a first name.

It’s been recycled.

It never dawned on me growing up. It wasn’t until I was older that I started to realize how cheated I had been. You might ask, so why not go by your middle name? Well, that’s a tough decision for a child to make on his own. Self-imposed name changes never seem to go over too well. It’s like trying to give yourself a nickname.

When you share the same name as your older brother, I guess you learn to be more creative in other areas to try and stand out.

Despite obvious copyright infringement, I still like my name. Plus I am the only one in the family named after a relative other than our father—Lloyd comes from my grandpa. So that will just have to make up for the rest.

 

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