Everyone has a name. Most of us have little to say about what name we are tagged with. Parents choose names for children for a variety of reasons. Some names seem to fit the person and some don’t. Some of us like our names, some don"t.
Many of us change our names. Sometimes just a little and sometimes a lot. A college friend went from being Leonard Smalley to being Leonard Moredock, (Or vice-versa. It was a long time ago.) without getting married. Some of my siblings changed their names in many ways.
My oldest sister is Mae Katherine McConnell. We call her Kayce. Her name change came during high school when she went to work at a summer job at the insurance company where our father was a Vice President. She didn’t want special treatment so she kept the relationship undercover by telling everyone there that her name was Casey Jones. The Casey stuck as Kayce.
My next sister, Linda Lee, stuck with what our parents named her and is still called Linda. My older brother, Robert Redding McConnell, took the plain old nickname, Bob. Bob is who he was and Bob is who he will always be. Nothing much changed with Bob.
I was named for my father and paternal grandfather: William Thomas McConnell, III. A name filled with history and expectations and one I wish were shorter, especially on days like the day I filled out mortgage papers. It is a name designed to cause writer’s cramp. No one has called me William Thomas except my mother when she was especially exasperated with me. Since my father was called Bill, there was a need to find a new name for me. Up until I left for college, most family and friends called me Bill Tom. Post college friends call me Bill. If I hear someone call me Bill Tom I know it is a voice from the past. My parents could have called me Trey, but we lived in the south, the home of two named people, (Billy Bob, Tommy Joe, Bubba Roy) and Trey sounded just a bit too Yankee. The inner family often called me 3 I’s.
And then there is my younger sister; Elizabeth Sherfy McConnell. This poor kid took forever to finally land on a name. First the family called her Betty Sherfy. (Remember we lived in the south.) We called her BS for short – pun intended. She lobbied hard for a name change and the family started calling her Betty. Next, she left for college and she name shifted to Liz. That one stuck for several years and is what I still call her.
In her middle years, she morphed into Sherfy. That has stuck as she has journeyed into old age. Well, almost. Sherfy was quickly shortened to Sherf. Sherf has proven to be an unusual and interesting name. HER NAME HAS GIVEN ME ONE OF MY FAVORITE TRUE STORIES.
Many years ago, Sherf and her husband John relocated to Southport, North Carolina. I remember the name of the town because she repeated asked that I come visit them in Northport, South Carolina. Anyway, they began attending a small, friendly, informal church that they loved. One of the features of the worship services was a time for church members to testify to how God had blessed their lives. One young lady stood to tell her story. It went something like this. “I just want to thank God for Sherf. I was so depressed I couldn’t even get out of bed. Sherf came over, got my kids ready for school, fed them breakfast and got them on the bus. Then Sherf laid down in my bed with me and just held me while I cried.” The story was a touching testimony to my sister’s kindness and compassion.
The best part of the story unfolded after the worship service had ended. It was an unusual happening, but there were visitors in the morning worship. After church had ended, the pastor greeted the visitors and invited them out to lunch. In the course of dinner conversation, the pastor asked if the visitors had questions about the service or the church. Obviously, the visitors had had a conversation in the car on the way over. Their question went something like this. “We found the testimony interesting and were wondering: Just who is the Sherriff in this town?”
That is funny. Period.
Copyright © 2017, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
Bill McConnell is the Interim Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.
He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon
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