Identity Crisis

[jianantonic]

My cousin is reading Little Women right now, and being named after two of the characters in that book, I'm pretty familiar with it, so we've been talking about it a good bit.

And it just occurred to me a few minutes ago that my mother named me after the wrong two girls.  Not that I would prefer to be Josephine Amy, I quite like my name Margaret Beth, and I like that I'm named for the two most virtuous characters.  But I AM Jo Amy.  

Jo -- tomboy, opinionated (with a side of temper), liberal, WRITER
Amy -- the baby, a little boy crazy, vain, a touch whiny and impulsive, travels the world...

Meg was the oldest, the most even tempered, the calmest, the most patient, giving, and maternal.
Beth was quiet, shy, sweet, and sickly.  And she died young.

I get why those two were Mom's favorite characters, and they were always my favorites, too, because I'm named after them and obviously identified with them for that reason...but I'm so not at all like either of them, and so very much like the other two.  So if you'd like to start calling me "Jo" now, I think it would be an appropriate nickname. 

Comments

[pwylltwiceborn.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can do, Joe.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

I reread Little Women a few years ago, and even then I didn't think about how little I match my namesakes. And I hated Amy, too. That may also have something to do with my hatred of Kirsten Dunst at the time she played Amy, having gotten to kiss Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire. Which I should also reread, because I don't think my 7th grade mind really understood it the first time around.

[cestlavie-2010.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Jo. <3