Fun With Words by Robert

 

So, if you check around my blog you will see a few little changes that I am really tickled pink about.  Hubby aka Robert has done some writing and is happy to share it with family and friends on my blog and so I made it our blog now.  The things I share will still be here but now family stories, musings and the like that Robert writes will be posted in between.  So, without further ado.  Here is Robert's first post. 

Fun with Words

The French word for given name is prenom. If you look up a prenom in French-English dictionary,it is your Christian name. So if you are not Christian, I guess you belong to the no name brand. (Joke OK)

My christian names are: Joseph, Albert, Robert.

Now you would think my name should be Joseph, well you’re wrong. Joseph should only have appeared on my baptism certificate.  Back in the old days, Joseph was given to every Catholic boy when baptized.  Girls were baptized with the name Mary.  Now imagine if you were a girl, and your parents wanted to call you Mary.  Your baptism certificate would read Mary, Mary.  (would she end up being contrary?)

Now that I took care of the name Joseph, let’s move on to Albert. As a kid I was curious  where the name Albert came from.  So, I asked my mother.  Her response was. “Your Godmother wanted you to have that name.”  Okay, that was, shall we say, acceptable.  However a few years later, I wanted to know why Aunt Alice, my Godmother, had chosen that name.  Now Aunt Alice’s response was.  “Your mother gave you that name.”  Confused?  How do you think I feel?

So my name should be Albert, right?  Wrong!  Let me try to explain how Robert became my given name. Prenoms [plural, because of the 's' at the end of the word] are all the names given to you before the family name, ergo Joseph Albert Robert.  Are you with me far? Good!  Prenom [singular, see no 's' at the end of the word], is the name just before your family name, which is Robert.  Please tell me you understand.

Fun fact:  I knew that I had the names Albert Robert, but didn’t realize in what order they were until I got my birth certificate at 14.

Dealing with various government agencies is a lot of fun.  I’ve had letters addressed to J. Potvin, Albert R Potvin JA Potvin.  The exception is Revenue Canada,  guess what,  yes, J.A. Robert Potvin.

Now if you honestly think, I’m going to call, write or get involved in trying to correct any of these agencies and explain what I’ve written above, you’re crazier than I am.  The only reason  I added the J. A. on official documents was the amount of R or Robert Potvins listed in the Ottawa phone book (15 pages worth of the old book) if there’s still such a book any more.  Not to mention one Robert Potvin seems to owe a lot of money to a lot of people.

As for nicknames there are Rob, Robby, Bob and Bobby.  Now there are nicknames that I hold dear.  Dad called me Be, pronounced bay.  He rarely used that name in front of others.  To me it always meant 'I love you'.  My cousin Macky always called me Bibert, pronounced Bee Bear.  Macky and I went to grade school together and you couldn’t ask for a better guardian angel.

Hope you enjoy it. Had fun writing it

Be.