Laurel

Growing up, I didn't properly appreciate my name, probably because at the time it was fairly unusual. One year in my cabin at my summer camp in Colorado, all of the other campers and both councilors had some derivation of the name Katherine or Jennifer--and then there was me. Both my first (Meredith) and middle (Laurel) names were unisex and unique. My mother's first name (Carroll) is also a unisex name, pretty neat when I think about it...But I didn't fully embrace my name until undergrad, when during a hall "tea" (We had teas for just about everything at Bryn Mawr, though I don't recall ever having tea at one), each of us gave each other a new name based on our personalities. Without knowing it was my middle name, Laurel was picked for me.

Laurel was nearly my first name - apparently when I was born my father first said "Laurel Meredith" to me before saying "Meredith Laurel", at which point I pulled his finger and determined the order of my names. Years later someone with whom I was once very close called me Laurel, making the fact that since moving to DC I have been called Laurel by everyone in my dreams both curious and bittersweet. My late grandfather went by C.Earl. Maybe I should go by M.Laurel for the second half of my life!