Okay, already—the name thing. Edited to add the questions I missed the first time around.
1. What does your first name mean?
Cynthia=Of the moon; goddess of the moon. An epithet of Diana. Apollo was called Cynthius, and Diana Cynthia, from Cynthus, a mountain in the island of Delos, in which they were born. She was called also Delia, from the name of the island.
(My mother’s name is Diana. She didn’t know about the connection between our names until I told her. I really wanted to give Katie a name in keeping with the tradition, but her father objected strongly.)
2. What does your middle name mean?
Lynn=Waterfall. There are a lot of us Lynns around, huh?
3. What does your last name mean?
Armistead=It’s supposed to be derived from d’Armistadt, Germany. Supposedly some of Katie’s ancestors were nobility there at one time. It’s not MY name so much as Katie’s which I kept when her father and I divorced.
4. So what does your name mean when put together?
Moon goddess waterfall in rural Germany?
4b. Do you have a nickname?
Cyn. My family calls me Cindy. I hate it. I’ve hated it since I was 6 or 7, not that they care. Please don’t ever do that. Well, not if you wish to continue associating with me, anyway.
5. What would you have been named if you were the opposite gender?
Matthew Scott. They didn’t even have a girl’s name picked out.
6. Any other name oddities?
I’ve had WAY too many names, thanks to being married three times. My maiden name is Roberson. My first husband’s name was Hall. The second was Armistead. The third was Smathers. I’ve never been attached to any of them, to be honest, other than wanting to share my child’s last name for simplicity’s sake.
7. Do you like your name?
Not particularly.
8. What do you like best about it?
Hmm. Well, it isn’t dreadful, and it doesn’t grate as some I’ve heard, and it isn’t too weird but it wasn’t so common that I ever had to deal with being one of many Cynthias in any situation.
9. What do you like least about it?
Honestly, the fact that I’ve never had a last name that’s MINE, or to which I’ve felt any real connection.
10. If you HAD to change your name (witness protection program, whatever), what would you want it to be?
I haven’t ever thought about it much. I’ve never even considered taking a magical name. I don’t plan to change it again, although I have idly wished that we could come up with a family name that actually suited me and Sam.
