down and safe

I'm at skip=625 back to my first placeholder.  First load of laundry is in the washer, mail is sorted, and after I've gone through the backlog, I'll type up some notes I kept of my trip.  (If you're very, very good, I'll also type up my notes from Hong Kong last Christmas.  [g])

a meme i didn't answer during the week

1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain.
My father's paternal grandfather's name began with the same letter as my given name; so although I wasn't deliberately named for him, it worked out fine as far as my grandfather was concerned.

2. Do you have your children's names picked out already? If so, is there any significance?
I have a selection of names beginning with the initials of various relations -- my grandparents and my aunt, and now my other grandfather as well* -- but I don't think I've only got one name for each initial, and also, I expect the children's father to make some contribution to the decision.

3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been?
The name -- first and middle name -- my brother eventually got.  I also know what his first name would have been if he'd been a girl, and what his other name would have been if he'd been twins.  (And thus what the girl twin's name would have been if he'd been fraternal twins, I suppose.)  But not middle names, in those cases.

4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why?
I don't know.  I'm tempted to say something that's less easy to misspell or misremember, but it's been my experience that there is no name that can't be rendered incorrectly.

5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do w/ your name constantly?
There's a name that begins with the same letter as mine that people often call me by mistake -- in many cases because they know someone by that name and are confusing the names (if not the people), but also often even if they've never known anyone by that other name in their lives.  Oddly, people with that name tell me they're not frequently called by my name.

6. Any nicknames you are fond of?
For myself, you mean?  Not that can be easily made from my given name.  I'm usually called Fox, though, which really is my last name, so I suppose that counts?  :-)

* My mother's father had an unusual name, and was almost never called by it for as long as I knew him -- he was known his whole life by a nickname that began with a different letter.  So if I were naming a child after him, would it be more correct to name the child after his legal name, or the name he used?  (My own father is an even more extreme case of this.  My grandfather at least used his legal name in legal situations, I mean to say, but always used his nickname socially; my own father has been called by his middle name since he was a child, and has never, ever, ever used his given first name.)