Names are Magic | Cozy Kids Stories & Farm Tales

This week we are talking about names, specifically the names we give to places, creatures and things we love.00:00:14It is a.00:00:14Truth universally acknowledged that a beloved place animal or thing is in need of a name.00:00:22Or well, if it's not universally acknowledged, at least the practice has a long and illustrious history in both fiction and reality.00:00:32I can't say for certain when I fell in love with the practice.00:00:36But reading Anne of Green Gables with my mother might be a safe guess.00:00:41Or perhaps I simply inherited it from my father, who has an excellent penchant for wonderful names.00:00:49But if we go with the Anne of Green Gables in the classic novel, a precocious and imaginative young girl is adopted by siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, and many a hilarious and heartwarming adventure ensues.00:01:05One important habit of ants is the giving of beautiful names to places and things that catch her fancy.00:01:12The farm she comes to live on is already named Green Gables in the town of Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island in Canada.00:01:20Existing listeners may remember that my family took a trip there earlier this summer.00:01:26At any rate, the apple tree outside Anna's window is not just an apple tree, she is the snow queen, the lovely Ave. and takes to school, becomes lovers lane, the pond near her home becomes the lake of Shining Waters. A forest becomes the haunted woods and terrifies her at night.00:01:47Through the effects of her own imagination.00:01:51The blossoming trees along another lane, urn at the name the white way of delight.00:01:58Every part of Anna's life becomes more romantic and magical when she gives it a name and she is in good company with the practice.00:02:08I mentioned that my father loves to name things, and when I was growing up in Ohio, my parents went through a long process to pick a name for our sheep farm.00:02:18My dad especially tried name after name after name, struggling to capture the peaceful seclusion, verdant landscape and secretive old trees that were hallmarks of this farm.00:02:34He eventually landed on a name that came from a place near his childhood home in Georgia.00:02:39Mossy Dell Adele is a valley usually situated among trees, and that's exactly what our farm was.00:02:49It actually used to be called Hidden Valley, but that sounded a little too much like a salad dressing to my dad and the mossy implied the rich, lush plant life, old woods and beauty that our farm had in abundance.00:03:03I had pitched making a mossy doll farm here in Virginia, but my husband quickly tossed that one in the garbage we live on top of a hill, Clare, he told me.00:03:16Well, very well.00:03:18If we have to be literal about it.00:03:20Dell wasn't the most apt descriptor for our hilly perch in the Blue Ridge Mountains.00:03:26I'm sure you know by now that our farm is named Foggy Oak Farm, but it was pretty difficult for us to arrive at that name when we moved to the farm.00:03:35We knew we wanted to give it a name, just like my parents had named Mossy Dell.00:03:39But what should we go with my husband and I simply could not agree.00:03:46We had begun settling into the farm in the hot, hazy days of August and on the way to and from work we debate names.00:03:54We had, of course, noticed the towering ancient oak tree that dominated the view in the pasture behind the house, so that featured prominently in many of our discussions.00:04:05Old Oak farm no Oak Hill farm.00:04:10No Windy Oak farm, no.00:04:14And on and on it went until one morning in early September, we awoke to a world's waft in fog, looking out the back window, we saw the massive oak as the fog swirled around it, and we knew.00:04:30We were foggy oak farm.00:04:36Now, it's true that farms often have names, but any place can have a.00:04:41Does your home have a name?00:04:43If it doesn't already have a name, what would you name it?00:04:47It could be something about where it's located, or a feeling you have when you're there.00:04:52I think it adds a certain specialness to a place that's already special to you.00:04:58We can think of the names we give our animals and each other in the same way.00:05:03Some grown-ups get the very special honor of naming a child like you, and those names are very precious indeed.00:05:12My first daughter is named after my mother Cathy, but I admit that with my second daughter we had trouble agreeing on a name.00:05:19We just couldn't settle on one.00:05:21We had to really study her in the hospital after she was born to finally settle on Rory.00:05:27Rory is a just a name we liked, but our Rory made it her own.00:05:33So sometimes names have a special meaning or history, and sometimes names are something that you like and that feel right.00:05:42As you grow up, you might also earn your own nicknames.00:05:46Those could be short versions of your name or something totally unrelated.00:05:51In my family we have fun with what we call secret names, which are names that you discover about yourself, or that someone discovers about you.00:06:01She didn't call it this herself, but when Anne of Green Gables asked to be called Cordelia instead of Anne, it was because she felt like she was a Cordelia at heart.00:06:11Like Anne, we have discovered many secret names.00:06:15Rory likes to play pretend puppies with Kathy and she decided that Kathy's name as a dog is chocolate because she is a brown dog.00:06:23When the kids grandparents were picking their grandparent names, one wanted to be called Grammy, a lovely name traditional in my husband's family.00:06:31But Cathy, as a toddler, couldn't say Grammy and took to calling her Mimi as soon as she could Babble out a moniker for her grandmother.00:06:40And so Grammy became Mimi and has remained thus.00:06:44Through four additional grandchildren on that side of the family.00:06:48Similarly, my father wanted to be called moki, but just as with.00:06:52Mimi. Yeah, if.00:06:53They couldn't pronounce it.00:06:55He became Kiki and has remained so to this day.00:07:00I have a friend who I decided had a secret name of Gray eyed Athena after the Greek goddess because she was very wise and had grayish blueish eyes.00:07:10Do you have any secret names or nicknames already?00:07:15Animals are similar, at least in our household.00:07:18Any given animal will have both its official name and a series of secret or not so secret names that you uncover over time.00:07:26For example, one of our dogs is named Finn, but he is sometimes Finnegan Flynn rider.00:07:31Finnegan begin again.00:07:33And so on.00:07:34Christoff another dog is also Christopher Topher.00:07:38Big boy Christopher and Christopher Christopherson.00:07:43And so forth.00:07:44Cats are especially good for secret names.00:07:48It can take time to uncover even a handful of secret names, so it's good to have fun with the first official name you give your animals.00:07:55To I'll share some of my favorites and please send me fun examples from your life too.00:08:01Two of our current caps are named Ruth and Iggy, but in a consistent pattern for our family.00:08:08We had trouble agreeing on those names.00:08:10We were all over the place and had taken to just calling them black and Gray after their fur color while we debated.00:08:18Kathy wanted Cinderella and Aurora.00:08:20Rory appeared to either want to name both of them table or jiggly and tickles, and I wanted Tigress and Katniss.00:08:29Finally, my father suggested Ruth and itchy, after heroines in a movie, all the grown-ups and joy.00:08:35Surprisingly, the kids agreed almost immediately to those names.00:08:41Kathy looked at me and said, you know, Mama, I like Ruth because she's black, like our Ruff.00:08:46And you know what?00:08:47That Gray kitten is always doing scratching because she's itchy.00:08:53So we discovered that at the time Kathy had misheard the names and thought they were Ruff and itchy.00:09:00It worked for us and so they were named with the secret names of roof and itchy to boot.00:09:08There are a couple of favorite chicken names from my past that I think you'll enjoy as well.00:09:13He deserves his own story, but back when I was a kid in Ohio, we hatched a beautiful rooster.00:09:19He had pale yellow and gold feathers covering him from neck to wings, interspersed with ear descent, black feathers that flashed green in the sunlight, and his tail was magnificently plumed, with long arched black feathers.00:09:34He was also enormous. He must have weighed at least £20, which is a lot for any chicken.00:09:40At any rate, I can't say exactly how he came to his name.00:09:44Gradually over time, I believe, but eventually my brother dubbed him his full name of Imperial Gustave Rooster.00:09:52But you cannot simply say imperial gust of Rooster, you say.00:09:57Imperial Gustav rustov.00:10:00What are you doing?00:10:02He was by.00:10:03Far our most memorable chicken growing up.00:10:07Today we have a hand that we call lady Feathering Ton, who is named after a character in a TV show that we grown-ups and joy.00:10:13She has a large black hen with fierce black eyes.00:10:16She prefers to lay her eggs in a cabinet in the garage or on top of the nests of other hens.00:10:22She also has a terrible habit of eating both her own eggs and the.00:10:26Eggs of others.00:10:27The character she is named after is a very grasping, selfish woman, so it works for her, but as with.00:10:33Imperial Gustavo rusta.00:10:36You cannot just say lady feathering ton.00:10:39You have to say.00:10:40Lady Featherings ton chicken names are fun, aren't they?00:10:46Some of our current checks have great names too.00:10:49The kids named one butter for her yellowish hue, and one was originally named Brownie for her brown feathers.00:10:56Until my daughter noticed that her favorite thing to do was race around the pen as fast as she could, now she is known as Miss Motorcycle.00:11:05And that has become her primary name instead of her secret name, because it's just perfect.00:11:11We've also had pancake and waffles, syrup and syrup.00:11:16Marshmallow one through Marshmallow, 4, cross speak and many many other fun chicken and duck names.00:11:24What would you name a chick?00:11:27We have talked about places and creature and people names, but you may also have fun naming things.00:11:34Think about some famous names from history and literature.00:11:37Excalibur is the mighty sword of King Arthur.00:11:40The Telaria are the winged sandals of Hermes that allow him to fly drop near as a golden arm ring that provides endless wealth.00:11:49The Philosopher's Stone allows you to create gold from lead or something from nothing.00:11:55The list would be endless if we went.00:11:57Through them all.00:11:58But people have a long history of naming the things that they cherish.00:12:03You may have a stuffed animal or other toy with its own name, or many with names.00:12:09Some people name their cars their favorite pens, their lunch box, just about anything you care about can have its own name.00:12:16If you want it to.00:12:18I think I'm going to go name something now.00:12:22What about you?

Names are Magic ✨| Cozy Kids Stories & Farm Tales

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