Still Breathing…What’s in a name?

Here is another oldie from the “Still Breathing” section once on the Ming web site, a feature that preceded  this Blog. 

7/06/05-  What’s in a name?  That’s a fairly rhetorical question unless after 46 years you learn that all of that time you haven’t been using your proper given name.  Let me explain.

 

Last Friday my wife, daughter, and I made the trip to Lawrenceville, Georgia to transfer our Ohio driver’s licenses to Georgia.  The administrative bureaucracy in Georgia is not quite what it could be.  We had been warned that to get our driver’s licenses we should expect to spend the entire day at the DMV in a que that would rival those of the former Soviet Union.  We were also been told that some bureaus allowed appointments, the closest of which was an hour and a quarter away.  So, that is how I ended up in Lawrenceville, Georgia last Friday, the day that I learned my real name.

 

As I stood at the counter, with birth certificate, my Ohio license, and proof of residency in hand, the clerk, a most friendly young woman, copied my information down on a form.  As I watched her print out my full name, gleaned from my birth certificate, I interrupted to correct her.  My full name, as has been known to me as long as I can remember, is “Arthur Granat Ruppelt”.  Hell, I’ve seen it a hundred times, and there it is in big bold letters on my law license.  So, as the clerk printed “Arthur Grant” I chimed in.

 

You see, Granat is my mother’s maiden name.  I know it well.  It is my grandfather’s last name, the man who I am named after.  It’s a name of Swedish origin that has come to be a Scottish name.  Centuries ago many Swedes settled in Scotland, and some of them were Granats.  Granat in Swedish is the equivalent of “grenadier” which has since come to be identified as Scottish.  I’ve always been a Granat, proudly so, of that I’m quite sure.

 

Well, sure I was at least until last Friday.  As I questioned the clerk’s spelling, after some confusion, becoming just a bit perplexed she referred me to my own birth certificate laying on the counter before us.  There it was, right at the top: “Arthur Grant Ruppelt”.  As the sound of bagpipes and the slurping of herring withered away, all I could say, dumbfounded to say the least, was “oh”. 

 

So, after 46 years, the Great State of Georgia has informed this former Ohioan of his proper name.  I suppose Grant isn’t the worst of names.  I also suppose I should count my blessings that it isn’t “Sherman”.  Please note that this isn’t over yet.  The birth certificate that I brought to the DMV was a certified copy of my original, one provided by the Cleveland Health Department s the original was at that time misplaced.  Somewhere in the myriad of boxes that is currently my house lies my original which will hold the final answer as to my proper middle name.  I should be able to find it soon, hopefully by September or October……2010.

 

UPDATE: 5/30/08- The City of Cleveland Bureau of Vital Statistics has repeatedly sent the birth certificate with the wrong middle name.  They just continue to repeat their error over and over again.  So, my middle name is still “Grant”.  I’m wondering whether the error isn’t on the original certificate and my middle name is indeed Grant. The original birth certificate is still missing in action.

 

But wait, it gets even better.  Last year I was buying a pistol and the gun shop employee handed my driver’s license back to me and asked me if I had noticed something odd on my license.  The problem was that under  gender I was listed as an “F” rather than an “M”.  I looked up at him and said “holy crap, do you know what this means?  My wife is a lesbian”. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)  The boys in the shop got quit a kick out of the error, and it stayed that way for months.  I figured that I would get it corrected when the City of Cleveland saw fit to send me a correct birth certificate.  As it turns out I lost my wallet a few months back so I corrected the gender issue with a new license, and almost had the clerk convinced to change my middle name to the proper one.

 

So, now I can say, with head held high, that my middle name is Grant, and that I am a male, and my wife is a lesbian no more.

 

Life can be so complicated.