Names

My usual student names blog is somewhat overdue this year but that isn’t because I don’t have a delicious list this year. Unlike last year, in which I encountered a handful of students with names that I had never heard before (Alida, Brumley, etc.), this year there was only one of those, a Zoita, and she goes by Zoe anyway. On the other hand, here’s an interesting story: last year I had a student named Hannah Wollman and this year I have a student named Hannah Roseberry. A little while back, Hannah Wollman met her birth mother for the first time and discovered that had she not been adopted and instead been raised by her birth mother, her name would’ve been Hannah Roseberry.

The really noticeable thing this year is that I have an Alessandro, an Alessandra, an Alexandra and an Alejandro. I would love referring to them by those delightful monikers but they all go by shortened versions, namely Alex, Ali, Lexi and Alex. Oh well, I still have the class beginning next month in which I’ll have a Lauren, Lindsey and Liliana in. La la la.

Several years before I began working at this school, one of the students here was the daughter of actor Ted Danson, who was famous for his role on the sitcom, “Cheers,” in which he played a bartender named Sam Malone. This year in 5th period, I have a student named Sam Malone. I also have a kid named Jim Stark, which is the name of the character James Dean plays in “Rebel Without A Cause.”

So now the time has come for my favorite names, with my criteria usually based on some poetic, musical sound to their first name coupled with their surname that appeals to me. Repeating students from last year are not eligible for this year’s list so my apologies to Lexi Granchelli and Alejandro Camerieri-Rodriguez.

8. Jonas Pojdl (pronounced poy-dill)
7. Nora Zindrick
6. Carter Dotlich (pronounced dot-lick)
5. Emily Aronica
4. Dominic Orcel
3. Kyleigh Krawczyk (that’s three surnames on the list ending in a hard ‘k’ sound)
2. Marissa Perez
1. Justine Flaster (Not only do I love the repeating “st” sound inside both of her names (just as I love the repeating “rrr” sound in the middle of #2’s name) but I also love that when she does well on an assignment, I can write “Flasterrific!” on it).