What's In a Name?

My mother wanted to name me Meredith. I was never "almost an Alice" or "maybe Christine." She loved the name Meredith, so as soon as she knew I was coming, I was called Meredith. 

As a child, I hated my name. I wanted to be Tiffany or Stephanie or some other popular 90s name that sounded so cute ending in "ie." I even tried for a stint in first grade to convince my teacher to call me something weird I invented from my initials, but it never stuck. As I've grown into Meredith, or perhaps as Meredith has grown into me, I have come to love the name. I like the way it looks on a page, the way you have to reach back to dot the i and cross the t, the way it gets misspelled on my coffee cup and mispronounced by non-native English speakers. I learned to declare it boldly and completely for auditions and how to scribble it incoherently when I sign for my credit card.

Now that I have tried my hand at offering names to two new individuals, I appreciate a bit more what goes into a name. A name is the very first birthday gift. It is meant to declare identity and inspire purpose. Meredith means "sea lord" or "ocean goddess" which is sort of a funny thing to chose for a landlocked Texas child, but I guess it suits me now.

Just over seven years ago, I inherited an additional name when I married, and like so many aspects of marriage, Storrs began to change me too.

Our identities are robust and complex. They are marked by each personal milestone and imprinted with those we hold dear to our hearts. They include our past hurts and all the things we aspire to be. Over the years I have come to identify with a number of labels. Child of God. Woman. Wife. Mother, Worker. Designer. Introvert. Nerd. Californian. 

But before all the labels, I started with a name.

I have outgrown the goals and parameters of two blogs now. And though I still want to write about my kids' silly antics and share design work, I wanted a place to explore God's word and how it pierces to the heart of our identity. I want to consider the various aspects of who we are and how they become woven into the fabric of our communities. I want to engage with others as they grapple over their past and present and try to make sense of the future.

So if I want to write about identity, it only made sense to start with my own. Welcome to MeredithStorrs.com.