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Rated: E · Short Story · Genealogy · #2058203
What my terrible name means to me and the woman I'm named for. 100 words or less.

What's in a Name?

B. Evans Hudson


Stranger; that's what Barbara translates to. At the thoughtless age of eleven I decided to educate my grandmother.

"No dear," she said, "it means beautiful flower."

She was wrong, so I decided to argue with the woman who had carried the name far longer than I. Her tenacity was infuriating. At the end of my argumentative rope I produced the book that proved I was right. I stabbed at the word 'stranger' for emphasis. She glanced at it briefly.

"It must mean beautiful stranger," she said; and she left.

It took me two decades to realize she was right.

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