Named

I just read an essay about the trials and tribulations of having an unusual name like Maeve. In fact the essay was written by the Irish humorist Maeve Higgins.

Americans call her Meeve or Merv or Mavvy even Mauve. I have such a straightforward name I found myself feeling a bit jealous. Maeve got about 3000 words out of her name; I don't think I could get 300.

I mean Paula is a really nice name. I’ve been among those who actually liked her name. I am eternally grateful to my mother for standing firm against Agostina, my Sicilian grandmother’s name. Until I read Maeve’s essay.

I could have gotten a lot of mileage out of my dear Gramma’s name. I can just imagine the trials of being called Gus. The unusual spelling. Wow what a gold mine I missed out on.

I just never had any problems with my name. No one mispronounced it.  There doesn’t even seem to be a nickname for Paula. Daddy would call me Polly occasionally. But nothing else ever came up.

And spelling? A cinch.

There was a slight problem with people who wanted to call me by another name like Pauline or Paulette or even Phyllis. I never understood why but the only time it really got on my nerves was in high school when a certain Mary Lou Prather decided to call me Carol, a name she considered preferable to Paula. We never became friends.

Maeve had a nice section on her namesake, a Maeve of Connaught, a warrior queen and so promiscuous she never made it to saint. Some say her name means 'she who intoxicates.'

Jealous again.

What does Paula mean?  It's from the Latin for 'small.'

Agostina means majestic!

As namesakes go I had a choice between St. Paul - who always seemed to be a grouch - and St. Paula of Rome - a virtuous, married lady with five children.

St. Paul’s falling off a horse and becoming all evangelistic made him a know it all and unattractive. It was impressive that he travelled all that way into Turkey to spread the gospel and write tons of Epistles we had to listen to during Sunday Mass. I was surprised when I visited Cappadocia that he had gotten that far.

But he’s the one who decided women had to cover their heads in church and couldn't teach or assume any authority in the church. So why would I want him as a patron saint?

St. Paula of Rome, who had a happy marriage to a nice man named Toxotius, only became really saintly after he died. They had been rich and happy but when he died she gave up her society life and went to build hospices and convents in Bethlehem. She wasn’t for me either. Five children? It was interesting that she ran off to be with St Jerome but it never occurred to me that their relationship wasn’t on the up and up. This wasn't the role model I wanted either.

I don't come across a lot of Paula’s. So I always wondered where my mom came up with it. 

Apparently there was a movie called Random Harvest that came out in 1942 starring Ronald Colman, who had what was termed a mellifluous voice. The way he said "Paula" with his British accent was quite a turn on for the day. In the movie he loved Greer Garson, who had red hair and nursed him through amnesia. But when he got his memory back he simply forgot her and went back to his lordly estate leaving her a mess in Scotland. I think they got together about 20 years later.

It always sounded like a likely source to me but my mother insisted she discovered the name all by herself. She said the movie came out after I was baptized and had nothing to do with her pushing the name on Daddy and his family who, I may have mentioned, wanted to name me Agostina.

I do know that Saint Augustine was even more of a grouch than St. Paul.

If only St. Paula could have been more interesting … like Queen Maeve.

There is a St. Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. I suppose she might be more exciting in a martyrish kind of way.

Or I'll  just look for  a recording of Ronald Colman mellifluously saying my name: Pauuugh-luh.