My name is...

Virginia's teachers came by the house to meet her last week in preparation for the start of Kindergarten. One of the questions they asked (when Virginia let them get a word in edgewise) was what she liked to be called.

Virginia is easy, because she goes by her first name. But we can take some comfort in knowing that on Horatio's first day of school, a couple years form now, he will not have to raise his hand to "William" during role call and then say, "Actually, I go by Horatio."

Although, I do fully expect that by the time he is five he will have that sentence down. Currently when I call him by other names like Peanut, or Manzilla, or Handsome Devil he says, "I not Peanut! I 'Ratio!" I still get away with calling him Buns, because I've convinced him his full name is William Horatio Honeybuns Nelson.

With new, kid-friendly, systems in place, my children's teachers will already know what to call them on the first day. And they will be spared embarrassment.

Until... Latin class.

I had a college Latin professor who was fond of having the entire class decline names in unison. Not all English names decline in Latin (Sarah doesn't, unless you leave off the -h) but we had Latin names for the class that did.

On a side note, our teacher chose our Latin names to be as close as possible in meaning to our given names. My Latin name was Regina, because Sarah means "princess" and Regina means "queen." We did have the option of asking for a different name but I only remember one person taking advantage of this. He wanted to be called Janus. A few days later I saw him creeping around my dorm trying to follow someone through the door (we had hand scanners). Janus was not such a master of portals after all.

Anyway, not only did this professor have the class decline all of our names, but he had us decline the names of visitors as well. When my sister, Amanda visited:

"Surgite, Amanda!"

He made her stand up in front of the class.

"Vos omnes, declinate Amanda."

The class responded:
"Amanda
Amandae
Amandae
Amandam
Amanda
O Amanda
Amandae
Amandarum
Amandis
Amandas
Amandis
O Amandae"

As it turns out, Virginia's name declines perfectly.

Surgite, Virginia!

Vos omnes, declinate Virginia.

Virginia
Virginiae
Virginiae
Virginiam
Virginia
O Virginia
Virginiae
Virginiarum
Virginiis
Virginias
Virginiis
O Virginiae

Horatio's name got a little corrupted from the original Latin. But, it comes from Horatius:

Surgite, Horatius!

Vos omnes, declinate Horatius.

Horatius
Horatii
Horatio
Horatium
Horatio
O Horati
Horatii
Horatiorum
Horatiis
Horatios
Horatiis
O Horatii

The cats (Socrates and Penelope) got Greek names. The kids got Latin names. And Latin names bear hidden gifts.