ANOTHER POINT ABOUT HORACE | 2006-08-01
In the piece below I puzzled over why parents are cruel enough to stick their male infant with a name like Horace. I said upper-class Southerners had an even worse habit: They would name their male newborn BEVERLEY. I talked about one kid who was constantly in fights after it was discovered htat his middle name was Beverley.
Needless to say, any boy whose parents had stuck him with the name "Beverley" tried desperately to hide it until he got old enough to change it. But this reminded me of something.
Beverley is a HORRIBLE name for a boy. But I knew one upper class man who ran for governor of North Carolina whose name was I. Beverley Lake. I never found out what the I. stood for.
Whatever that I. stood for was so bad he used it was an initial and ACCEPTED Beverley!
Lord, I don't WANT to know what monstrosity the I. was for!