Kangaroo

 

The story is told, and it’s probably an amusing myth, that in 1770, whilst out exploring Australia with Sir Joseph Banks, James Cook of HMS Endeavour fame, saw a big furry animal with a pouch, jumping on its hind legs and asked the local guide its name.  Kangaroo, came back the cry and that’s what us Westerners have been calling them ever since.  Yet, it was subsequently found out that Kangaroo was simply the local way for saying I don’t understand what you are saying.   So rather than answering James Cook’s question, way back in 1770, the local guide was simply saying I don’t understand your question. 

Kangaroo – it’s a name that sort of fits, even if it did come about in a very strange way.

Last Friday The Times published the current ten words people are finding it most difficult to say.  A fair number are either the names of people or food dishes, and of those, a significant proportion are Irish names.  Take the beautiful Irish female’s name of Eefa.  Well, that’s how you say it phonetically, but it’s spelt: Aoife. My wife has an Aoife in her class and tells me that for most of last term she was constantly spelling it with the o and the i the wrong way round!

Names, their origin, spelling and meaning, are fascinating.  Whilst doing some family history research on some of my ancestors whose surname is Pettifer, I discovered at least three different spellings of that name, so who knows if we’ve ended up with the right one.

Even my name Ian Green can be spelt with two i’s in Ian and an extra e at the end of Green!

We’ve recently celebrated the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity it’s fascinating to ponder some of the origins of the various denominations that make up Churches Together in England.  There’s the Quakers, who are said to have literally quaked in their worship, the Baptists who fully immerse candidates under the water and were inevitably known one time as the Dippers, and the Methodists who gained a reputation for practicing their faith very methodically.

In the New Testament the Church was sometimes referred to as The Way, or The Household of Faith.  Perhaps during this Week of Prayer for Unity amongst the churches, the most important name for us to own and cherish is simply Christian.  A name that describes anyone who wants to be a follower of The Lord Jesus Christ.