What IS in a Name?

Back on the Sunshine Coast in B.C. where, last night, I attended the 15th Annual Judy Day dinner, one of those features of living on the Coast that would be hard to duplicate any place else. Of course, it’s only a feature if your name is ‘Judy.’ I don’t always make it to the dinner, but I have probably been there for 12 or 13 of them.

Judy Day occurs at the end of March, but the dinner usually comes a little later because it needs to be scheduled outside of the spring break. This year was even later than usual, but the dinner was attended by a good showing of Judys, some 20+. For the most part, these are women I do not know outside of this dinner. Despite the 15-year history of my attending these dinners, I have never learned the last names of most of the Judys, although I recognize them by appearance, even as we all grow older.

Over the years, there has been some variation in the event format, but we have now settled down to a stable routine. We each bring a wrapped, used book. There is a before-dinner conversation-with-wine period, and after dinner, some kind of drawing allows these books to be redistributed. The same process moves the silver-paper Judy Crown to some other Judy who is then obliged to arrange next year’s dinner. Arrangements include selecting a venue, putting a notice in the paper, and sending emails to the Judy List.

It is truly strange to be in a group of people all with the same name and, with one or two exceptions, within a pretty narrow age range. Someone calls, "Judy!" And we all respond, every time it happens. Many wear name badges that say 'My name is JUDY'. It’s not always clear whether we have anything in common other than the name. We are almost all the metaphorical children of Judy Garland, of course, born between the mid-30’s and the mid-fifties. We usually have some small talk about previous dinners, note is taken of Judys that are not dining with us this year. Some years there are new Judys, but I saw no one new this time. However, there is no standing up and announcing one’s name and background, so I could be wrong. You are Judy; that is all we need to know about you. It is also true that almost every Judy I have spoken with at these dinners at some point says that she never really liked the name. So that, too, brings us together.

One of the Judys at my table is a dragon boat paddler; one has dogs and runs a dog daycare center; two play golf. None of these things brings us together, but one of the golfers, upon hearing that I also lived in Point Roberts, asked me whether I had seen wonderful exhibit at the Sechelt Art Centre last winter that had quilts of abandoned houses from Point Roberts. I got to say that ‘She who made those quilts was I,’ and it was as if we had been reintroduced to one another in an entirely different way because a different context. Overall, it was an inexplicably pleasant evening.

The evening did cause me to do a little internet research about names, though. Judy was a very popular name during the 20th Century for a brief period that shadows Judy Garland’s career. Perhaps, if gay men had more children, the name would have endured, but it is now in severe decline. B.C., which publishes yearly summaries of baby name/birth certificate records, reports at least five babies named Judy/Judith/Judie/Judi in only four of the last ten years. Even in those years, the number totals only 27 Judys. That’s not enough to continue a Judy Day tradition, I’m afraid. So we may have to hand the torch off to the Brooklyns (a name gaining in popularity in the past few years), or the Jordans/Jordyns (who account for 50 or so babies each year), or to the Nicoles, Ashleys, or Brittanys (all celebrity-generated names, I'd think). But we won’t be handing it off to the Emilys or the Emmas (the two names that have dominated the most popular list for the past decade): there isn’t a venue large enough to hold all of them.

And what about you and your name? You can check the B.C. popular names for babies list here.