The History of My Name

Written by Maddie for the same English class a year earlier

My full name is Madelaine Rose Campbell, but I’ve gone by Maddie my whole life. My parents found the name Madelaine in a baby book, and according to the book, Madelaine is derived from Mary Magdalene so it is a biblical name. My middle name is Rose after my aunt. But alas my parents decided to make my life more difficult than necessary. They decided that Madelaine was too formal for a baby so they nicknamed me Maddie and it stuck. It took a while but I got past the confusion of having two first names and learning how to spell both of them. Now I am only called Madelaine Rose when I’m in trouble.

My parents found my name in a baby book called “Baby names A to Z”. My mom liked the name Hope, but my dad liked the name Sarah. They also thought French names sounded good, considering two of my sisters’ names are Brontë and Aimée. Finally, the one name they agreed on for me was Madelaine.

My name hasn’t really been a problem for me. I don’t usually get made fun of because of my name, except for one time in fourth grade. My sisters and I all had the same style backpack. My grandpa is talented in the art of embroidery, so he embroidered each of our initials on our backpacks so that we could tell them apart. While riding home on the bus one day, a sixth grade boy was looking at my backpack with my initials MRC embroidered on it. He looked up at me with a smirk on his face and asked “What does MRC stand for Major Retarded Kid?” Only being in fourth grade, this really offended me. So I ran home and screamed at my mom asking her why she had made my initials mean ‘major retarded kid’. Only later did I realize that the boy was the ‘major retarded kid’ not knowing that kid starts with a “k” not a “c”. Other than Maddie rhyming with fatty I haven’t really had any problems with my name.

If I could name myself anything other than my actual name then I would want to be named Hope. I have always liked the name Hope, and I would like to use it for my first daughter. All in all, given the choice I think I’d stick with my own name. I like my name. I like the meaning of my name; it has a reputation that I try to live up to. It makes me feel unique, and that I am me, Madelaine Rose Campbell.