Names In The 1920's

Dorothy, Helen, Betty, and Margaret. According to census data, these were just a few of the most common names that society deemed socially acceptable and conventional for young women during the 1920’s (ssa). In those days, when parents went to name their baby girls, they mostly opted to stick to these conventional names that would not cause their daughter future ridicule from their teachers or confusion from their pink-collar employers. Obviously, the name ‘Maple’ would not have been included on this list. In current day America, society has shifted their viewpoint of names to include much less-traditional options; it is not too uncommon to hear of a child being christened after a flower or tree. However, in the 1920’s, such unusual names …show more content…
Christened ‘Maple’ by her late mother, she never considers how unusual her name is until she heads off to school--where her teachers tell her that “There’s no such name” (Frost 6). Upset, the young girl rushes home to ask her father about her name-- who tells her the story of her mother choosing the name Maple for her newborn daughter before dying. Maple’s father admits that he did not “know what she wanted it to mean, but it seems like some word she left to bid you be a good girl--be like a maple tree” (Frost 23-25). This vague explanation satisfied Maple for some time, but eventually the uniqueness of her name surfaced to her attention once more. As Maple grew up, she noticed that the unusualness of her name caused people to “either notice it or get it wrong,”(Frost 54) and this made her self-conscious about her identity and the mysterious meaning behind her name. Most adolescents (and adults, for that matter) desperately want to fit in, and for this reason, adhere to conventional standards established by society. In fact, according to a 2012 psychology article by Michael W. Taft, “Our biological wiring for group cohesion is so strong that we...feel anxiety if we don’t belong.” Maple knew that her name broke 1920’s standards and felt anxiety as a result. Long before the 21st Century psychology article had come off the press, Frost had accurately identified and portrayed what it meant to be …show more content…
As a child, she looked for clues in her late mother’s bedroom, but found none except for a single maple leaf tucked inside a page of the Bible. After leaving her father’s home for a job in the city, she ends up marrying a man after he told her she resembled a maple tree without knowing her name. With her husband, Maple continued to search for what her name could truly mean, why her mother chose to name her the way she did, and what her identity was. They traveled around the country in autumn, taking note of both old, wizened maples, as well as the glorious foliage of healthy trees. It confused Maple that her one name could encompass such a wide spectrum of meanings--of both old and sickly to youthful prime. After seeing a particularly beautiful maple, however, they decided that Maple’s name should represent nature in its pure, glorious form. While Maple knew that the secret behind her unusual name had still not been truly discovered, she finally accepted to give up her long search, and reflected that, "We would not see the secret if we could now: We are not looking for it any more." After so many years of attempting to reconstruct her identity, she finally understood that she would be happier without the fruitless question of the meaning of her name incessantly swirling