What's in a name?

I had planned to fly to Vegas with my son and, although the person seated next to me looks like my son, my row-mate has eschewed watching movies to work on an English paper because “there won’t be enough time to finish it when we get back back on Sunday.” Who is this person and where is my son? Anyway, to this week’s entry.

I do many stupid things but would like to highlight only one here. Through work, I pay (on a pre-tax basis) for monthly MetroCards each of which is valid for thirty days from the first turnstile swipe. Here’s the stupid part, I get really excited when I can start my monthly card after the first of the montn because it makes me feel like I am getting a deal. For example, my May card expires today but, as noted above, I’m flying to Vegas so I won’t start my June card until Monday, June 4th - this delights me no end even though it makes no difference at all. 

Coincidentally, I ran into an old high school friend on the subway recently and was reminded of a something he told me in high school. His last name is Finale and his family is from Italy. He explained that his surname came from the fact that his ancestors' job was to extinguish the town’s streets, thereby marking the finale of the day and I always found that fascinating. It sparked my curiosity into last name etymology and, for the most part, they stem from a family’s occupation or trades (e.g., Carter was the last name of who transporter or carted good or geographical origin - a few English examples are Hamilton, Sutton, and London.  And the prefix Mc means son of, and the prefix O’ means grandson of.  Other surnames are derived from certain features of an area, such as Hill or Ford. 

There’s a good website to explore your last name here — https://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts

But, back to my stupidity, which might could be tied to my last name MORON-ey.

onomastics

1 a : the science or study of the origins and forms of words especially as used in a specialized field
b : the science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places
2 : the system underlying the formation and use of words especially for proper names or of words used in a specialized field