It’s funny, the things you get used to after years and years and not give them a second thought….

It never occurred to me that my cousin’s name was out of the ordinary until we got a little older and I’d mention her in conversation and people would be like, “Wait a minute, you have a cousin named Radiance??”….

Growing up, it wasn’t a thing….hell, most times we just called her Rai Rai or Rai’ence (that was me and Bryan’s attempt at annoying her….9 times out of 10 we were successful too)….

Now that I’m older, I think it’s a beautiful name that suits her….she is a very pretty girl and has a radiant personality that I think comes in part from having that name….

With all of the hoopla about how names are starting to affect who gets hired for jobs and stuff I sometimes wonder if it’s an issue for her….I don’t believe it has….

My roommate senior year, Ken, has alot of theories….one of the ones I tend to agree with is the profound effect of naming a person….his brother played football at UGA for a while when Champ Bailey was there….anyway Ken had something to say about Champ Bailey that made alot of sense to me….

He said that when a child is growing up it gives them a sense of empowerment with a name like Champ or Boss or King….

I don’t think I’ll be naming any potential children I have Superintendent or General or anything like that…but at the same time, a name like Calvin can be mangled and butchered….

I had a couch in Middle School and High School that knew me fairly well….I even saw him at Morehouse’s homecoming (he’s a fellow grad) and he still calls me Kevin….I’ve been called Kelvin and seen my name misspelled Clavin pretty often….and I thought my name was fairly normal….

As for the meanings of names from foreign languages and such (as opposed to readily apparent meanings, i.e. names like Nia which means purpose in Swahili or Belle which means beautiful in French) my name means Bald….it’s from the Latin Calverium which means skull (our Gross Anatomy teacher called skulls by their latin name 50% of the time)….neither my father, nor my grandfather who were both named Calvin were ever bald for any significant period of time….needless to say I don’t place much value in the meaning of names….

At any rate, I’ve been rambling on pointlessly….I’m sure Rai Rai will be happy to have been the focus of so much internet attention though….