Arkansan? Arkie? Or Arkansawyer?

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is asking its readers to weigh in on which descriptor they use to describe themselves, as why.

I’ll be interested in the results. I referenced this conundrum in a post last week.

A former co-worker, here in Northwest Arkansas, was adamant on this: He calls himself an Arkansawyer, but he calls me an Arkansan. The difference? I didn’t grow up here. My family heritage does not involved Arkansas. He did and his does. He is proud to call himself an Arkansawyer.

Then again, members of Leadership Benton County, which I was part of in 2005-2006, were firm that terminology such as Arkansawyer only helped entrench the rest of the country’s low opinion of Arkansas, which is apparently not to different from the Arkansas depicted in Beverly Hillbillies.

Many of the residents of Northwest Arkansas (an average of 1,196 people move to Northwest Arkansas every month) are not originally from here, and they tend to fight the negative stereotypes.

Identifying the residents of other (mainly Midwestern) states where I’ve lived is not an issue; the populous agrees. Is this a situation unique to Arkansas, United States?

I call myself an Arkansan: This term follows the conventions used in many other states for one, which makes it the logical choice. I don’t really like the term Arkansawyer, or Arkie, particularly in formal contexts, because they seem so informal and uneducated.

Naming things is hard to do

As much as I like words, and working with words, I have a lot of trouble naming things.

I have never had a named car until recently: The car we now drive came with its name, Stormy (because of its color). I have tried in the past to christen my vehicles, but to no avail.

We don’t have pets, so no naming there.

We have named our house, and that came relatively easily: The Hygge & Fika. (Read one of my husband‘s posts about the name origin here.)

I had a very difficult time starting this blog, because I needed a name for it. That was an insurmountable problem for several months. I’m still not entirely satisfied with the name Word Lily, but it will do. I like its grace, beauty and brevity.

When I was a child, I was part of naming a number of pets. When we got our first family dog (Wanda), I was too young to help name her. When I started high school, my family adopted a momma cat and her litter of six kittens. The mother was given the name Donna, for some reason. I, being in the midst of reading Julius Caesar, proffered the names of many characters. We ended up with a Brutus and a Cassius; I don’t recall if my offerings of Portia, Antony and Caesar were used. I was in on the naming of one family dog: Sonnet.

A group of friends (and colleagues) were sitting in the living room last night brainstorming for a name of a new web project. Naming, when it comes to the web, is much more difficult, than naming a pet. So many domain names are taken — even though they may not be in use, or may be functioning only as an ad farm. The choices are limited, and you can’t use the same name as someone else on the other side of the world.

But we’ll persist! It’s a worthy project, just as this blog is, so a name will come eventually, even though it’s not as nice as when a name comes straightaway.

Government interference with baby’s name: shouldn’t be

A Swedish couple’s life is being put on hold and frustrated by the refusal of that country’s tax authority to OK the name of their 6-month-old daughter. The name the couple chose and the government rejected: Metallica.

Sweden’s tax agency rejected Michael and Karolina Tomaro’s application to name their six-month-old daughter after the legendary rock band. “It suits her,” Karolina Tomaro, 27, said Tuesday of the name. “She’s decisive and she knows what she wants.”

Although little Metallica has already been baptized, the Swedish National Tax Board refused to register the name, saying it was associated with both the rock group and the word “metal.”

See here for the full news piece.

This doesn’t make sense to me.

The couple should be able to use any name they want. It shouldn’t matter that the word has been used/was created as the proper noun identifying a band.

Per this site, many people and institutions should be in uproar about naming conventions, too:

• Nivea and Terius Nash named their child Navy. Now there’s a name the U.S. government should protest.

• Sylvester Stallone has a daughter named Sistine Rose. Should the Vatican complain? Or what about Michaelangelo’s estate?

• Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple. I haven’t heard the Washington state fruit industry grousing.

I’ll add to the list:

• Brooklyn was in the top 100 most popular names in the United States in 2005 (the most recent year of data), according to the Social Security Administration — number 78, to be exact. Should the name be banned, since it’s associated with the borough of New York?

• A friend of mine named her daughter Britain. Similar to the Brittany of the day, but also unique.

Naming a child is such an individual process. Each parent is pulled in multiple directions when considering the possibilities — unique? popular? family name? traditional? meaning? sound? origin?

No matter the parents’ homeland, they should be able to select the name of their choice.