Princess

There are three things to know about my first name. Besides just the fact that my name is actually Sarah and not Cathy is one thing, but also here are three more interesting tidbits:

1. My name is Sarah. Not Sara. My administrative assistant at my old job was Sara. We were both vehemently protective of the spelling of our names. That ‘h’ at the end is important! Or, not, if you were her. She liked to joke and pronounce my name Sar—ah! ‘Ah’ like the sound the doctor tells you to make when he’s choking you with a popsicle stick. Or, if you’re the school secretary that was there before her and also have a deeply southern accent, my name is pronounced Say-ruh. I think my name must have been popular in the 80s. Starship and Hall & Oates had songs named after me (“Sara” and “Sara Smile” respectively). Actually, Google tells me they did not. They had songs named after Sara. I’m Sarah.
2. My name means “princess” in Hebrew. And thus, my grandma’s nickname for me was born. That same grandma was a close personal friend of the pope, such was her level of Catholicism. I’m sure the fact that I was the youngest child of her only son, and I was given a name straight from the Bible made her very happy. Not much made that woman happy as it turns out. And despite the fact that my husband and I got married in the Catholic church, she stopped talking to me once she found out that I had married the guy who is 7 years older than me and who I met on the internet. Obviously I had sinned beyond her ability to be forgiven. But I digress.
3. While my name is indeed found in the Bible, that was not the reason I was given this name. In fact, I’m pretty sure my father had ex-communicated himself from the Catholic church by the time I came along. My name originated with a cute little blonde girl who was in the post office at the same time as my mom when she was pregnant with me. I don’t know if she had other names picked out for me before that. I was her third and final daughter. I think she was probably named out at that point. So why not rip off the name from some other little girl? For what it’s worth, I am not blonde.
4. Bonus fact: My middle name is Elizabeth. There is a shocking number of Sarah Elizabeth’s in this world. I have encountered more people that share my first and middle name that it is now the second question I ask every Sarah I meet. The first is obviously if it has an ‘h’. The second is what their middle name is. Sarah Marie is pretty common too.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk on all things ‘Sarah’.