My dad’s name was Ceylon Ambrose! Yes, Ceylon, the name of the island of Sri Lanka before it reverted back to native control or whatever. He had a brother named Omar (as in Omar Sharif). Ugh. My mother’s name was Mary Armalene, the middle name being French. She never liked it, but I always thought it was kind of pretty–except that, as a first name, Armalene would probably be shortened to “Army”–not good!

When I was born, I guess they couldn’t decide what to name me, so they picked Lois (my dad’s sister) and Vivian (my mom’s sister), so that both sides of the family would be appeased. My brother got stuck with Lee Merle. I have no clue where that came from.

As a child, I hated the name “Lois.” It was old-fashioned and I never met anyone else with that name. Now I can see that it was at least unique and not too weird–and now that I’m older, I often meet women named Lois. My only real problem with it now is that NOBODY can spell it correctly! It gets spelled “Louis,” “Louise,” and even “Lisa.” How the hell does Lisa sound anything like Lois?? Why is my name so damned hard to spell? It’s gotten so that, whenever I have to give my name to someone over the phone, I automatically spell it because I know they’ll get it wrong. My last name gives me the same problems, because it’s a short, somewhat common name with an uncommon spelling, so I’m doubly cursed. Oh, well, at least I wasn’t named after an island nation. :\

– Lois