A little Rose-Aimée Autumn was born last year.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
I don’t know her, it’s the Bank of First Names of Quebec that told me that there were now two of us. The news made me happy. A victory !
Because if you knew the emails I get from some readers…
“I find your name so high-sounding, long and ridiculous that I quickly skip to the next page. Sorry. »
“Could you have gone longer? Ridiculous ! »
“Three years to learn to write your name. »
“Your name is too long, I’ll tell you [sic] not and does not buy your books. »
(He is my favorite!)
As my very first year as a special collaborator comes to an end – I will not miss the opportunity to talk to you about Father’s Day next week – the time has come to recognize the elephant in the room.
My parents wanted to call me Autumn. We told them it was too daring… Autumn was therefore relegated to my middle names. (Yes, even that, I have several.)
When I was 12, I had to get an identity card made. The official in charge of my file asked me which first names I wanted to keep.
“Rose-Aimee Autumn, please. »
I thought it a shame that my parents hid such a romantic name. I wanted him, too.
As for “T. Morin”, it’s not my choice.
T., it’s for my mother. She wanted me to wear her last name, but being adopted, she didn’t completely identify with her clan… T., that would be enough.
This should enlighten the kind readers who have written to me to find out more about the pile of letters that are found each week next to my photo.
(I take this opportunity to salute the one who wrote to me that said photo would be more beautiful if you could see my teeth…)
Now, how to explain that a first name can shock us?
I write “we” because I include myself in the lot… If I love my name, I’m still curious to know the story of little Victor-Hugo, Simon-Guy, Hibou and Paul-Rouge born in 2021.
“As long as the first name was transmitted [du parrain au filleul notamment]there were no ‘beautiful’ or ‘bad’ first names, with a few exceptions,” sociologist Baptiste Coulmont told me.
In fact, it is only since that they are chosen according to our tastes (around the XIXe century) that they are subject to judgment. Now, “the first name is seen as expressing something”, sums up the researcher.
A first name hides a story, according to Étienne Guertin-Tardif.
The sociology teacher at Cégep Marie-Victorin uses first names to show his students that society weighs on us without us realizing it.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Etienne Guertin-Tardif
We believe we are free to give any first name to a child, but the time, the environment in which we evolve and our level of education will play a role in our choice. We are more conditioned than we think!
Étienne Guertin-Tardif, sociology teacher at Cégep Marie-Victorin
Our first name evokes something on the social level: a generation, a class, origins. It can therefore have a certain weight.
“Research has shown that first names typically linked to working-class backgrounds are less attractive on dating sites,” says the teacher. And in school, those with a noble first name can receive better grades! »1
A name comes with connotations.
What clichés invites mine?
It may be a little haughty. Or hippie. Or blue flower. I can conceive of certain traits being attributed to me upon hearing it (like I assume all Mikes are party people who dream of motorcycle trips)…
And what makes a “beautiful” first name?
Étienne Guertin-Tardif answers me with a reference to the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu: “It’s difficult to identify our tastes, but it’s easy to identify our dislikes! When a first name displeases us, we have a clear reaction. We know we would never give it to our child…”
But if we had to find a leading trend, we could think of brevity. The most popular first names are usually very short, like Emma and Noah, big winners of 2021.
Four letters. It is true that on this, I do not meet expectations…
“We often have relatively common first names, believes for his part Baptiste Coulmont. If your first name was “Rose” on its own, you would get fewer comments. »
According to him, since I use several of my first names publicly, I may invite more reactions. By migrating Autumn from my birth certificate to my daily life, I thumbed my nose at the standards…
Little Rose-Aimée Autumn born in 2021,
If you ever come across this column while googling your name, in a few years, know that it will open many doors for you. It will arouse curiosity, make a great icebreaker in any party and inspire passionate love letters.
Or emails, because I guess paper won’t exist anymore.
You have a poem for your first name and, in my experience, no reason to regret it. It’s precious, rarity. It will make you hard to forget.
If there are any hardships, remember that there are names much more difficult to bear than yours…
We salute the four Adolfs born in Canada since 1980.