A Rose by any other name………

Courtesy of WIKI:
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a commonly quoted part of a dialogue in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet

But what is in a name?
And how many flowers/plants are used as names anyway?
I came up with a few:
Ivy, Iris, Myrtle, Heather, Violet, Rose, Rosemary, Daisy, Sage, Lily, Petunia, and perhaps less common Hyacinth, Tulip, Honeysuckle, Buttercup, Clover, or Bluebell.
I also believe someone scrapped the flower and just went for Petal.

In my school days, apart from the occasional Heather, Rosemary and Iris, us girls all had pretty ordinary names.
There were four Christines and 2 Valeries is my junior class. There were also variants on a theme:
Diane, Dianne, Diana, and Dianna, yet at the time none were referred to as Di.
In later years and another school, we had 4 Susans, 3 Patricias (Pat, Trish and Tisha) and 2 Julies, plus a Diane and me (I’m a Diana aka Di by the way). She didn’t like to be abbreviated so it was easy enough to tell us apart.

This is definitely not me, but according to Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals (thank you WIKI).
Maybe this is why I love wildlife and nature so much (but not hunting unless it’s for food) , and seem to have a rapport with dogs.
As for the birthing bit, I don’t have kids and Diana was known as the Virgin Goddess of Childbirth and Women.
She was also one of three maiden goddesses who vowed never to marry (oh well, can’t win ’em all!).

On the male side, ‘Frank’ was very popular when my Dad was growing up.
So much so that Frank was the uncle, Our Frank was the son, Winnie’s Frank was the husband, and Your Frank was the boyfriend.

My great niece knew her colours, and identified the grandmothers thus:
Red Nanny (my sister), Yellow Nanny (my mother), Blue Nanny (my sister’s mother-in-law), and Other Nanny (nanny to my niece’s second daughter after her second marriage).

I may have mentioned in a previous post how I actually got my name though.
When Mum was pregnant with me, my parents both believed I was going to be a boy and as such I was going to be called Robert.
At least they didn’t put an ‘A’ on the end when I arrived.
Instead, Mum had been reading a book about a girl and her horse.
I’m glad I was named after the girl.
Somehow Red Rum (or whatever) wouldn’t have suited me!

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