Toe in the Water

Names and Things

Names and Things

I have lots of little text files that were started to record ideas, sudden thoughts and useful “stuff.” Most of them start well but never get very far and a lot of them are never opened again, having been forgotten in the general hubbub of the brain’s life. I am fairly certain that there are duplicates in there, files that were opened for a specific purpose, forgotten, and then a fresh file begun for the same reason. Not that I’ve done the research to prove this one way or the other, of course.

This is what passes for organisation in my life. You could say that it’s just a complicated way of forgetting things and, in most cases, you’d be right. But, occasionally, a file is opened that isn’t forgotten. It may survive through being useful enough to be added to regularly. And, once it has proved its worth, it will enter the hallowed halls of the indispensable. I have a small herd of these that follow me around wherever I go.

Since I have managed to survive without the files that have been forgotten, it may well be that I have hit upon an extremely efficient way of retaining things that are worth keeping, while dispensing with those that I don’t really need. And that must be why I keep doing it, opening files that usually end up in limbo.

I opened another one this morning. It’s called Useful Names and it’s for those place and personal names that occur to me as having potential for use in short stories and such. Names are quite important as prime indicators of atmosphere or character and I am fortunate in that, normally, I don’t have a lot of trouble dreaming up new ones when they’re needed. It can happen that I have a blank at times, however, and that is when my new file should prove useful. I’ve had countless names occur to me over the years and almost all are lost within a few days, since they’re not recorded. Now I have the answer to that.

Already my new file boasts the amazing total of two names stored. The first came completely out of the blue and it’s rather delicious. Here’s the text of my entry:

Greesham Ware - Old Yorkshire place (or house) name meaning the area of a village (the hamlet of Gree - Anglo Saxon name) to be wary of (ware - Old Norse "afraid of").

Note that it came with ready-established provenance, thus setting the style for all subsequent entries.

Then it occurred to me to enter a name that I’ve used once already but that might prove suitable if ever I need a village name in Northumberland again.

Witherkins - Northumberland village west of Newcastle (wither - cold or inhospitable, kins - neighborhood, both Anglo Saxon).

Not a bad start for a file, even if I do say so myself. Of course, I doubt it will ever grow large enough to provide a database for the use of others (for a small fee), but it could be a life saver on those days when the brain refuses to get into gear.


Word count: 521