Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Usual interpretation of the above line is in the similar vein to Shakespeare's 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. Was it meant to be interpreted in that sense ???.

The line is from Gertrude Stein's poem Sacred Emily, written in 1913 and published in 1922, in Geography and Plays. The verbatim line is actually, 'Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose':

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.

When asked what she meant by the line, Stein said that in the time of Homer, or of Chaucer, "the poet could use the name of the thing and the thing was really there."

The above is taken from "http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/15900.html".

The above is meant to be the preface to the topic of discussion "naming of kids". Oflate, people are naming their kids with so called cool names, which often are meaningless and simplified to an extreme. I always found people with names like Sanjana, Arjun, etc sexy and charming. A name should artificially attribute some good qualities or traits to the kid; add a touch to their personality.

These days, I've seen people to have gone to ridiculous extent to make it easy for people to pronounce the name. It looks like in no time, you are going to have "aaaa", "bbbb" etc.

Then, there's this another category of folks who just name their kid with whatever they wish, naming them after glamor actresses, some revolutionary leader or emperor or scientist.

What triggered this post is the story of a kid who changed her name with the help of a Judge. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/24/odd.names/index.html

As it is, kids will have a lot to deal with while growing up. The least a parent could do is name them with an un-"embarassing" name.

Parents should make their kids be proud of their name. It should sound nice, meaningful and reasonably unique. Just count the number of "Ria"s you know of. They should put some thought in to the "factor" that is going to be his/her identity for the rest of his/her life. Don't you think ???