What's in a Name? | Episode 570

And so quite often children don't, well, even we don't think about the name of things that are happening or that are around us, but where you can recognize a name and that it has significance, explain that to your children because it helps them to understand the world around them.

Just as simple as the name of a street, why was it named that? Martin Luther King Drive.

You know, who is that? Why would a street be named after him? And here in Palm Springs, as I drive along, I see the names of the streets are named, a lot of them, after entertainers, different celebrities, probably people who own property here.

I don't know exactly what their connection to Palm Springs is, but seeing the names of things helps, and explaining those helps your children to have a mental hook or different information.

As things happen, or you encounter things, and you recognize a name that means something to you, don't assume it means something to your children.

Explain it.

I remember as a child that I was, my father had a grocery store and we all, all the kids grew up working in the grocery store and different types of cars would come.

You know, people would come in different types of cars.

And in that day, the bag boys loaded all the groceries to the car.

So we went out to the cars.

One of the cars that I remember was called an Impala.

I never really even thought anything about that.

It just was the name of the car.

And it had a little logo on it that was a deer.

I had no association in my mind that the name of the car and the logo on it were in any way connected.

In fact, an Impala is a type of a deer or another name for a deer.

And so things like that, you can teach your children along the way, and maybe they pay attention, maybe they don't.

But names mean something.

And as that goes, your child's name means something to them.

So if it has a special meaning or is connected to a special person, explain that.

It puts value on them.