What is in a Name?

Author: Paul E. Richardson
Russian Life: Jul/Aug 2005
Department: Post Script
Page: 64   ( 1) pages

Summary: You might have thought that all of the names glorifying Communist "heroes" were eliminated in the wake of the Soviet collapse. If so, you'd be wrong.

Johnny Cash had a number one song in the 1970s, A Boy Named Sue, written by Shel Silverstein. It is about a boy who grows up angry and aggressive, cursed with the burden of a feminine name ("I grew up quick and I grew up mean, My fist got hard and my wits got keen"). Later, he tracks down the father that named him Sue, they fight and, just before the boy is to knock the father senseless, the dad pleads for understanding. He had to leave the boy alone in the world, he said, and "I knew you'd have to get tough or die. And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

Names have power.

What we call things colors our perception of them.

Consider what your expectation would be, driving somewhere across America, if you saw a "You are now entering" sign for these towns: Burnt Corn, Two Eggs, Painesville, Hell, What Cheer, Monkey’s Eyebrow. They all exist, and you have to bet there have been some interesting conversations over the years.

"So, where are you from?"

"Hell."

"Excuse me?"

"Hell, it’s in Michigan."

Our country is certainly not unique in the creation of oddball town names. Russia has its share as well....