IT'S ONLY A NAME

Les wonders if we should change our name when we change our job?

What's in a name you might ask? Well, I think quite a lot. I became aware of this recently when reading the letter pages in one of the many newspapers I buy. The letters were on sensible and intelligent subjects and they came from such people as Ted Phillips, Sid Davies, and Dick Walters. That made me think as to who these people were; they sounded at first light to be a bunch of lorry drivers, but then, what if they were, so what?

They couldn't of course be doctors! Can you imagine the following, "I'm not feeling too good I'm off to the surgery to have a word with Sid my doctor." Whoever heard of a doctor called Sid? A plumber, maybe or even an electrician, yes but never a doctor. Why not pop along to see your accountant, Dick? Then on the way back call in to see your solicitor, Ted. Accountants and solicitors call Dick and Ted? Completely out of the question.

No, there is no way that I would have any confidence in a doctor called Sid. You can't possibly have passed all your medical exams if you are called Sid. A doctor's name has to be Rodney, David, Horace, Gerald, or even as a last resort, Ian! But never Sid.

Having said all of that it doesn't end there. I now hear that within a few years there will be more female doctors than male which I think will be a good thing. But again, what about names?

I believe that greater care should be taken by our parents when they select our Christian names but the problem arises when you try to imagine what the new arrivals jobs will be many years ahead. The answer I think is that we should change our names as frequently as we change our jobs.

Years ago many people, especially those that worked in such places as banks had a job for life, but not anymore. So as we change our jobs so we should change our names, after all let's face it very few people like their own names and yet we do very little about it.

Thinking of names, in my younger days most people seem to have nicknames. Am I right in saying that's something which seems to have gone out of fashion? One thing which really gets my back up is this daft honours system where one minute you are just an everyday person and the next Lord and Lady muck or a Dame or Baroness.

The quicker we knock all this nonsense on the head the better, though we could wait until I get my knighthood. Somehow, Sir Leslie seems to sit rather nicely on my mantle piece and I seem to rather like the idea of people looking up to me, even when I am sitting down.

Les Lawrence