Portrait d'Yvette by French avant-garde painter, Francis Picabia, 1942 - source
Except for the hair color, this doesn't look anything like me, let me assure you. The simple and self-centered truth is that I like this painting because it's not only a 'Portrait d'Yvette' but it's dated 1942, the year of my birth.
Lately I've come across several Yvettes - kind of a weird feeling - in two recently read books (one I finished, one I didn't) and then this portrait today. I'm slightly taken aback since I can't ever remember seeing my name used for characters in fiction. (Except for Guy de Maupassant's short story 'Yvette' which I don't remember reading.) Has that ever happened to you? Well, if your name is Jack, it happens all the time and ho-hum.
But for us Yvettes out here, all this is a memorable and rare occasion.
When I was a kid I disliked my name intensely since it was odd and I always had to spell it out for people and, worst of all, Yvette wasn't conducive to a nick-name. Such are the trifles that make misery for young and tremulous ids.
Yvette, when I was a child I hated my name too for similar reasons. In the 50's it was almost exclusively a boy's name, so teachers would expect a boy when they saw my name. I was one of two girls in Birmingham, Alabama that we knew of named Tracy (and one of those was the daughter of a news columnist, not someone we knew personally). By my late teens it was a common name, of course. And even now I don't run into a lot of Tracy's in fiction. I loved it when a main character in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1963) was named Tracy, although her real name was Teresa.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a mystery series with a Tracy in a leading role? A girls' mystery series, I mean. NOT Dick Tracy. :) Okay, I admit it: I never knew a Tracy growing up. So we're in the same boat, my'dear. Here's the funny thing: When I moved to my current town many years ago, there was suddenly an influx of people named Yvette. One in the municiple building, one owned a business in town and the other...well, I forget. Talk about shock. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard growing up with a different sort of name. My own daughter suffered from the same thing and it's only in the recent past that she's accepted that having a name people remember is a good thing in business.
I grew up with a Tracy (female) in my class--from kindergarten through graduation. No Yvettes, though, until I came to work here at the university...now there are several.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there were a plethora of Bevs/Beverlys. I hated my full name and have always gone by Bev. I don't know what I would have wanted instead though.
Now, you make me wonder if there are any Beverly portraits out there....
I like Bev. My son-in-law's father is married to a Beverly. (She's his second wife.) Nice woman.
DeleteThere must have been a Tracy in at least one of my grades. I just just remember. I do remember an Ephergine. Not sure if that's the correct spelling - she was Greek. I also remember we had a class mate named Preston Foster. Not sure if he was named after the actor or not.
That painting of Beverly would make for a good Facebook pix, Bev. :)
Found one: http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/1998/beverly_color.jpg (but she doesn't look anything like me, either...)
ReplyDeleteHello Yvette,
ReplyDeleteHow strange that you should have met yourself, so to speak, in so many different places recently. Quite unnerving, we agree.
We think it to be a pretty name and, certainly, not one to have to be spelling all the time or being greeted with howls of laughter. Just think, Lady Ottoline Morrell called her daughter Julian.....now that may well take some explaining!
Hi Jane and Lance: Giving girls boys' names is not the greatest idea. But then think of all the boys back once upon a time named Beverly and Laurie (nick name for Lawrence) and Evelyn. It's SO confusing. Ha.
DeleteI think Yvette's become a more popular name within the past twenty or so years. But I love Jane's name. If I'd had another daughter I would have named her Jane.
I hated the fact that there were three Pattys on my block alone. Would have loved a name like Yvette.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that always the way? We always want what we can't have.
ReplyDeleteI think Patricia is a cool name, Patti. My agent (when I was actively working) was named Patricia, but we always call her Pat. She's a terrific gal. So I have a partiality for the name. Didn't know any growing up except Peppermint Patty. Not that I can remember anyway.
All these views about names.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I knew a stunningly gorgeous woman named Yvette. She was from South America, although I can't remember which country.
But, look, I think it's great to have a unique name. My name, Kathy, is and was one of the common names in high school. When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I wanted to change it to Kate or Katy, as a colleague had done that. But I took the easy route and left it as is.
My parents sometimes called me other nicknames and a friend has called me Katya at times, fine with me.
My name is short for Kathleen. If I'd had my choice, it would have been Katherine.
A year ago, with the aid of the Internet, I learned that my name originated from the Irish name of Caitlin. Wow! I thought I could have been the only Caitlin in high school and my gigantic city college. How impressive.
So, we struggle with our names, too unique or too common. Not satisfied. I'm OK with my name now.
My sister, on the other hand, had the middle name of Jane, speaking of Janes. She didn't like it and had it legally removed.
So, the moral of the story is, let's enjoy our names.
An excellent moral, Kathy. Maybe if you'd been Caitlin, though, you would have found some reason to wish otherwise. It's in our natures to be contrary. If we have curly hair we want straight and vice versa. It's part of being human, I think.
DeleteI think Kathy is a very nice name and one I had suggested - well, Katherine, anyway - to my daughter when they were talking names for her daugher. But you know, there is NO perfect name. Except maybe Sherlock Holmes. :)
Yvette, this is a nice little selfie. I think your name would stand out among a legion of names. In my case, as I observed elsewhere, "I've seen and heard at least six fantastic variations of my surname and none of those match up. The mutilated forms are all I hear mostly so much so that sometimes I wonder if one of those might not actually be my family name." Wrong name-calling is worse than failing to remember someone's name.
ReplyDeleteOh please don't say that wrong name-calling is worse than not remembering, I'm guilty of that a lot of the time. Shame on me. And as I get older, I get even worse at remembering names. I'm terrible at it. But I mean no harm. :)
DeleteA great painting (looks like she is getting the energy to go and do something more important any minute) - I'm sure deserves its place in the Yvette club.
ReplyDeleteThe Yvette Club. I like the sound of that, Sergio. Ha.
DeleteOnly women of a certain age seem to share my name. My mother never gave me a good reason for name, not for Joan Fontaine or Joan Crawford, so why? I've noticed that, as far as I can tell, my name only appears in two popular songs: Black Magic Woman and Maxwell's Silver Hammer. But I don't mind being a minority! BTW, I think Yvette is a lovely name.
ReplyDeleteMy name doesn't appear in any song I can think of, woe is me. Ha. But when I saw that Guy de Maupassant had written a story with my name as its title, I felt pretty good about it.
DeleteJoan is a good strong name. I'm trying to think if I ever knew another. But my mind is blank - as usual. :)
I suffered terribly, as a shy little girl, with the name Elyse. No one could pronounce it and no one else had the same name. If a teacher actually pronounced it correctly (rare), I worshipped him or her. My father knew a friend in the Navy who had a French girlfriend named Elyse and he liked the name (tho we aren’t French!). After years of being called Elsie (the most common, and then compared with Borden’s Elsie the Cow!), Eloise, Ellis, Alice, or actually E-Lice, I finally decided I liked my name. I get many compliments on it, which is nice. A popular TV show had a main character named Elyse some years ago, and that helped. But the few times I have met another Elyse, or Elise, we always commiserate on our names! I remember a beautiful actress in the ‘60s named Yvette Mimieux who starred in the scandalous “Where the Boys Are” and the lovely “Light in the Piazza.”
ReplyDeleteSame with me, Elyse. No one could pronounce my name either.And spelling it? Forget about it. But as I've gotten older I've sort of grown into my name. It was bound to happen. :)
DeleteI remember Yvette Mimieux. Kind of embarrassing for me since she was the exact opposite of me in looks and seeming personality. I was like a lummox compared to her. Ha.
I, too, have finally decided I like my name, Elyse. Good for us.
Didn't there used to be an actress named Elyse Knox??
Yvette,
ReplyDeleteTwo Yvettes for you. Courtesy of Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoN89jrbD80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqsltKSWNRA
I love the name Elyse or Elysa; have friends with both names.
ReplyDeleteBeethoven wrote a famous piano solo, which many of us had to
play as child piano prodigies(!): Fur Elise.
Your daughter named her daughter a lovely name, actually my sister's favorite name at this point.
I notice women's names when I'm reading books and blogs. Came across an Irish writer named Claire Moriarty. And in a few of Donna
Leon's books, there is an opera singer named Flavia Petrelli.
Love both of those names. Perhaps I can find a use for them.
You could have adopted "Eve" as a nickname, spelled it.
ReplyDelete