Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd share with you, how I got my name.
Let me back up a bit, first.
My maternal grandmother's name was Lila Victoria Rini--Italian. We are, in fact, distant relatives of the founders of Rini's Stop-N-Shop in Cleveland, Ohio, a supermarket that has long since closed down. Grandma's older sister was Anne, from whom my mom gets her middle name. Mom is Judith Anne. I mention this because it gives you an idea of some of our family names.
Mom married first in 1965, a brief marriage that she prefers not to talk about much. During that marriage, she got pregnant. That pregnancy ended in miscarriage--would have been a girl, and Mom would have named her Victoria Anne.
Mom married my dad on December 10, 1968. When she was pregnant with me a year later, she decided that, if I was a girl (which, naturally, I am), I'd still be Victoria, but...new husband, new baby...scratch the middle name of Anne. I was going to have a different middle name...after all, I was a different person. Mom's Aunt Anne used to call my Grandma "Lou", as a nickname. How she got "Lou" out of Lila, I have no idea. But...that nickname stuck with my mom, and she lengthened it to Louise, to be my middle name.
The other thing was, that Mom knew two girls, during her school years--one was Vicky, and the other was Louise.
I was, therefore, named for my maternal grandmother only in reverse, and also for Mom's two friends from school.
By coincidence, Grandma, for whom I was named, also had one other thing in common with me. She had two brain aneurysms in her lifetime. The second of those two was what killed her, when she was only 50. Years later, I was diagnosed with PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease). And some years after that, we learned that the same gene that causes PKD also causes brain aneurysms. Hmmmmmmm.... Not to worry, though. As of last August, I do not show signs of getting a brain aneurysm. All that showed up on the MRI was that I have a benign arachnoid cyst on the left side of my brain. But, I was told, that's a pretty common thing, and it's not hurting anything...just making me more prone to headaches than the average bear (which is true). I guess I can live with that, and if that's not optimistic enough, what is??
Anyway...I do go by Vicky....or VickyLou, and that's where I get that from. That's my combination of my first and middle names.
Last name???? Well...I prefer to hang on to my married name of Sharer, although I have been divorced for 10 years now. My maiden last name is Zeldman, but I'd really rather not use that anymore---maybe because, when I was growing up, my mom's family gave me the impression that being Jewish, or even half Jewish, was a bad thing. My Catholic cousin always got nicer Christmas presents than I did, so I felt like I was inferior because I was half Jewish. That's why I don't want to use my maiden name anymore, regardless of that it's OK to be half Jewish in the real world. I just hope I'm not doing something unacceptable, hanging on to my first husband's last name and considering that I might remarry some day. Well...if I ever remarry, I'll take on my second husband's last name. Fair enough??
Some time, I'll tell you how my cats got their names.
For now, I've gotta run (again).
Thanks for stopping by!!!!
Love ya!!
~~Victoria Louise Sharer
