Descriptive Speech

In the beginning of the story we see that Taylor is an average teenage girl living with a single mother. She says, “But I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding but I was there and staying out of trouble” (3). She was called “Missy” for a lot of her childhood

Baby Blues, the most common and mildest form of mood disorder can last up to two weeks after having a baby without the mother needing treatment.

Purpose: After listening to my speech, the audience will be more educated on Texas’s roadside attractions, as well as relate to the sites I will discuss in my presentation.

I was born July 18, 1999 to my parents Joel and Kathy at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was a month early, but I was such a large baby that the doctor said “if he came on time he would have driven us home”. My mom was thrilled to have her first and only child; she named me Dylan, after the son of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. My name was strongly debated by my Irish Catholic Great Grandmother, who insisted I be named after a saint. After a failed attempt by Father Tommy Conway to convince her of the great Saint Dylan, my mother agreed to give me the middle name Thomas.

My name, Daryl Naquin, Jr., represents the fascinating social attitude that males are considered to be the carriers of the family legacy. I contribute to the trend that Virginia Postrel mentions of boys’ names changing slower due to the influence of custom. Unless I were to change my name in the future, which is highly unlikely, this social duty is something that I will inevitably carry out if I were to have a family of my own. I represent my dad, my family, our values, and our aspirations. Moreover, it is interesting to consider the belief across many cultures that one can “stain” the family

Most people have a story about how their parents decided on their name, especially those of us who have less common ones. Mine is fairly dry; my parents looked through a book of names and decided that “Maizie” was charming and sweet and would fit me well. My sister’s story, however, is slightly more intriguing. Cleo Arden Seidl, born on August 3rd of 2001, was named by me, Maizie Regan Seidl, when I was just two years and nine months old.

Taylor was born in Pitman County, and she dislikes her birth place because of the attitude and lifestyle of those who live there. Pitman County was small, poor and isolated.Nobody ever really left Pitman to explore elsewhere. Taylor does not want to live such kind of life like everyone else at her hometown. She steps outside of the gender norms, and challenges the terrible Pitman tradition of teenage pregnancies. She decides to pursue a better life, driving out of the state in search for a more preferable place to reside at. However, she struggles to find a place to stay or a sound job to support herself. Furthermore, she is burdened by a baby that is suddenly thrust upon her by a stranger. She once said “‘If I had wanted a baby I would have stayed in Kentucky… I could have babies growing out of my ear by now’” (18), which tells us that she is not at all keen on having a baby at all. Ultimately Taylor chooses to take in the child, despite the fact that this decision would adds further burden onto her existing

From a very young age, Taylor (Missy at the time) was met with support and care from her mother and certain people in her community. In Kentucky, education was subpar, with few

She told me how one evening, the news were on and the reporter was interviewing a teenage girl-who looked to be around sixteen or seventeen of the African American race- who witnessed a murder. As the interview started, the teenager’s name appeared at the bottom of the screen and my mom decided that she should name her child that with it spelled the same (K. Walker). She even included the continuous pattern of I’s. Timsiha means “ram” and its origin is of African (Our Baby Namer). My mom was very skeptical into giving my dad the opportunity to give me my middle name but she went ahead and did it. My dad gave me my middle name, La’Tale. He felt as if it sounded good with Timisiha, so he settled for my middle name to be La’Tale (C. Walker). He never gave a solid reason as to where he got the name La’Tale from but I am pretty sure it was from a strange place. Walker is derived from the Middle English name walkcere which means “a fuller of cloth”. The Old English word for Walker is wealcan with the meaning of “to walk or tread” (About

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold (Proverbs 22:1).” On January 5th, 2000, I was given the name Lauren Riley Crouch. I already knew a few facts about my name. I knew that I was named Riley after one of the men on my mother’s side of my family. I knew that there were going to be many different spellings of the name Riley, but I never knew that there would be over twenty different variations of spellings (Best Little Baby). I was excited to research what states my names were the most popular, and I was very interested in finding out the meaning of my names. I was curious about whether there would be any celebrities with my last name, Crouch. The first steps I took to gather my information

Names often carry with them significant cultural meaning within families, especially in southern

For this project I interviewed Kevin Engle from our class who sat right next to me the day we were assigned the project. It turns out that Kevin was never intended to have his first name be what it is. He was initially going to be called Kyle or Kasey, but his parents felt that his first name was a good name in between those names for him to have. It is actually interesting because his brother’s name is Jake which meant that his parents named their kids from oldest to youngest in alphabetical order. Kevin’s last name comes from Germanic origins and is actually a translation for angel in German. Despite this, Kevin’s family is not entirely from Germany and has its roots blended with a mix of European culture from Germany to England as well as

Lucky for us, everyone has a name that is unique to them. This subject of the meaning behind names has really interested me, and has driven me to dig deep and find the origins of my first, middle, and last names. A quote that I think has a deep meaning is, “Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names.” If you think about it, this quote has a very real truth.

My parents, for one, help express the cultural part of my life. My father is predominantly white, whilst my mother is predominantly Cuban. Therefore, our names and food that is given to us are influenced by that. Starting off with names, my oldest brother is named underneath my father in which is a tradition in our family for the first child that is male to have that name. My other brother is given an ordinary Hispanic name just because my mother wanted it to be that way. But, another tradition in our family starts with me being the only girl in our family who is named underneath other family members. My first name Maria is my grandmother’s mother’s name, my middle name Elena is my grandmother’s name, and lastly, my last name Gary comes from my dad’s last name. Hence the name, Maria Elena

My father named me after the Laurel flower that grows on the mountains. I was almost named Alexandra, but it’s my middle name instead. My mom didn’t let my father name me Alexandra because she didn’t want people calling me Alex, and so my father chose Laurel. My mom’s name is Christine, and she always hated when people called her Chris. My last name, Kirby, is well known in our tiny town. I grew up in one of the smallest towns in Maine, Arundel, which is so small in fact that it’s not featured on maps of Maine, and doesn’t even qualify as a town large enough to get its own zip code. So, in this tiny town I grew up in, everyone knew