In Honor of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have a warm spot in my heart for today, as I consider it my personal patron saint day. (Patricia being the feminine form of Patrick.)

Never a traditionalist, I do not celebrate my holiday with tepid green beer, corned beef or cabbage. (For those wondering why – yuck.) I do, however, wear green. For many years, I also had a cute little button featuring a leprechaun stuck in the ground proudly proclaiming, “I’ve got Irish roots!” And I do.

Although GrampaStavo hails from northern Roman roads – closer to Verona, actually – GrammaJ’s side of the family all have Irish eyes. Thanks to my Great Uncle John’s family tree plotting, I am happy to inform you that my ancestors immigrated to California from County Cork, Ireland, via Chicago. (They must have figured out Chicago is still cold and windy despite an improvement in sunshine conditions and headed west.)

The muppets are named in honor of their Irish heritage. I’ve always loved Gaelic names. Jon and I agreed we wanted unique names for our little muppets – who knew our historical heritage would turn out to be so popular…Search and Destroy were the sixth and seventh most popular American baby names in 2010. Tough cookies, individualists, they’re awesome names if I do say so myself.

Search means “spirit of battle.” His middle name is Welker, in honor of G.G., a tribute in the form of her maiden name as she previously forbade the naming of any family child with a version of Winifred. So we stuck with the Irish initial. Destroy means “from the little hollow.” Anthony reflects the little man’s Italian heritage (we had to acknowledge GrampaStavo somehow) and is from the Latin for “priceless.” I’ve heard one’s name can help shape a child’s personality. The muppets are their names.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! And the next time you see a muppet, kiss him. He’s Irish.

 

8 Comments

Filed under Holidays, Names

8 Responses to In Honor of the Irish

  1. Dalia

    you know this is somehow dated March 18- which is neither today nor St Patricks day…

  2. gma J

    Top o’ the morning to ye! These photos always keep these Irish eyes smiling:) Can hardly wait to kiss and squeeze the cutiepies.

  3. Joanne Hamann

    Janet, you’ve gone grandma-weird. Tricia, nice post and really cute photos! Go Irish.

  4. I’m all for celebrating our Irish roots, but let’s keep the “Go Irish” chants to a minimum…I don’t want anyone thinking we’re Notre Dame fans.

    Go Trojans. (Yay Irish People)

  5. grandpastavo

    what is the big deal about celebrating st Patrik for the Irish , it is only one day …we ..on the other hand [the Italians] celebrate the rest of the year …salute ciao tutti gpa stavo

  6. Pingback: Kiss Me. I’m Irish | Stream of the Conscious

Leave a Reply to grandpastavo Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.