Growing up with a Christmas name
“In recent years, I have joked with my family that I bring joy wherever I go. I guess my parents knew what they were doing, after all. We can all use a little more joy in our lives.”— Joy Cecil“It’s fun to have a name with special meaning and it’s a conversation starter in many situations. I mean how many people are sung to by random strangers? I think it’s fun. I could do away with all the ‘Noel’ gifts, but I guess everyone has to collect something.”— Noel Reagan“Growing up with the name Holley and having a birthday close to the holidays (Nov. 25), everyone compared the two,” she says. “I absolutely loved having the name Holley because it was a Christmas-y name and it’s always been my favorite holiday.”— Holley Rudolph“I have always loved my name because I have two holiday names, Holly Carroll, even though my last name is spelled differently,” “The best part is that people are always singing Christmas carols to me, like ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘Holly Jolly Christmas.’”— Holly Carroll“I enjoy having my name. And besides, there are far worse things in life than having a name that can be associated with Christmas. This is, after all, the happiest time of the year.”— Joy Altimare“I changed the spelling when I was in the fifth grade so it wouldn’t be the Christmas plant,” she says. “That lasted about 15 years. My high school and college diplomas both say ‘Holli’ instead of ‘Holly.’ I went back to the original way when I was 26 and had to use my legal name for grad school applications.”— Holly Leber
Having a name that’s synonymous with Christmas is not always joyful.
Just ask Joy Cecil of Chattanooga.
“As a child, I enjoyed having the name and loved seeing the word ‘joy’ in textbooks. I felt like that was something that set me apart,” says Cecil, 33.
But as she grew older and the teasing started, having the name wasn’t so much fun. It was particularly annoying when people would randomly belt out tunes like “Joy to the World” and Ren and Stimpy’s goofy “Happy Happy Joy Joy.”
“Now when it happens, I tell people that I have never heard that before. It makes them realize they aren’t as original as they think,” she says.
When December rolls around every year, folks with names like Joy, Holly, Noel, Nick, Mary (or Merry) and Carol live under the ever-present threat of having their names linked to Christmas – and not always in a pleasant way. For some, it was traumatizing.
“As a young child, sitting in church on Christmas Eve, everyone sang the hymn, ‘The First Noel,” and I’ll never forget crying and crawling under the pew,” recalls Chattanoogan Noel Reagan, 33. “My mom had no idea what was going on. I later told her that I didn’t like everyone talking about me.
“To this day, it’s hard for me to sing my name, though I know the song is not about me. Imagine trying to sing your name over and over.”
And it’s not just auditory agony that causes her pain.
“I have a collection of Christmas decorations with ‘Noel’ on them that have been given to me as gifts over the years, which were all nice gestures from friends,” she says. “However, I have never been able to decorate my home with Christmas decorations with my name on them.”
A flight attendant, she says she gets a reaction to her name from people around the world. And, in some of those cases, it’s a nice moment.
“I was recently visiting an orphanage in Peru and the children saw my name tag and would grin with a smile, point and say ‘Papa Noel,’ meaning Santa Claus to them,” she says. “That was a new experience, but fun to see them laugh and grin because I obviously don’t look like Santa Claus.”
Holley Rudolph, 31, of Chattanooga, got a double dose of festive names when she married her husband, Spencer Rudolph.
“When I first started dating my husband, a lot of my close friends and family quickly picked up on the fact that, if we were to get married, I would become Holley Rudolph, which they all loved since everyone knows how much I love Christmas.
“Since becoming Holley Rudolph, I have definitely embraced it even more. I have a tendency to purchase reindeer decor, which happens to be very on trend right now, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.”
But Rudolph says her “holiday” name also reflects her faith.
“It’s enjoyable to have a Christmas name because of what the season really represents,” she says. “Celebrating on Dec. 25, the birthday of our savior Jesus Christ is what the holidays are about.”
Nick Rutledge, 26, of Chattanooga, says young kids ask him if he’s got a connection to St. Nicholas. He refers to it as a “liaison to Santa Claus.”
“It never fails that it usually comes up about this time of year,” he says. “There are times where it can put me on the spot, especially when being asked the million-dollar question: Is Santa real? It has always been a child around 6 to 8 years old, maybe 10 at best, and I always assure them that Santa is, in fact, very much real. And if you’ve been good all year, he knows it.”
Former Chattanoogan Joy Altimare, 38, now of New York, says that, in addition to being synonymous with Christmas, her name is also associated with being in a good mood. Most of the gifts she receives during the holidays will be wrapped in paper bearing the word “joy,” she says.
But people also sing you songs with the reference to “joy” and, if you ever grimace, you will be called a “killjoy.”
“No one wants the word ‘kill’ to precede their name,” she says.
“Torture” is the word that Holly Leber, 35, a former reporter at the Times Free Press, uses to describe the holiday season when she was growing up.
“I’d get stared at and pointed out during ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,'” she recalls. “When I was very young, I even had a music teacher pick me up and swing me around during that song.
“My sister’s name is Abby and, for about 20 years, my mother sent out cards that said ‘Abby Holly-days.’ I hated those.”
As an adult, she finds the association of her name with Christmas amusing, especially since she’s Jewish.
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6396.