Ask Wednesday: Two Morrises on one of them’s being named after the other

Stand-in for Nephew Morris,
who wrote:
“unk mo i would rather
not be pictured”

Uncle Mo

How did the naming go down?

William Morris Dean here. My sister who lives in Arkansas surprised and amazed me back in March 1966 when she named her third son Morris Dean [Story].
     Morris had been the first name of our mother’s father, Morris Voss. That is, I had been named after him, and also named after my father’s father, William Dean.
    I was amazed to have someone named after me because I was only twenty-three and hadn’t accomplished anything yet, and might never. I had just proposed to my wife-to-be, and I suppose that to get married was some sort of accomplishment—or at any rate staying married as long as I have (47 years next month).
    And, over those years, things happened, and I made up some notions about how my nephew felt about being named after his maternal uncle.

morris dean story here. so, unk mo got this idea that we should interview each other about the naming, how we felt about it, and so on [we write different. you can tell whos who]

[And questions are set in italics.]

why were you amazed?
    I just didn’t think it was appropriate. I wondered, What is that boy’s mother thinking? And how is my nephew going to feel about it?

how did you think i felt about it?
    I thought it would bewilder you. I knew that your parents weren’t going to be able to give you good reasons for it...unless maybe they told you that they hadn’t named you after me at all, but after the maternal grandfather and the paternal family name.

DID they tell you they hadn’t really named you after ME?
    no i knew the whole time i was named after a well learned man my uncle morris, and a dude without a shallow mind (neither of us believe the religion con)

Then, sometime in the seventies, I learned that you were being called Sam. Okay, I thought, that proves it. He really hated being named after me. I was right, right?
    nope. i have no problem with the name morris, actually i wish i was called morris because it is unique, i dont like ordinary names

[Speechless]

why did you jump to the conclusion that i didnt like it? there could have been other reasons, couldnt there?
    Well, in retrospect, of course. I suppose that I was jumping to conclusions.

so, what did you think when i started using morris again, after i got out of school?
    That just confused me. Had I been given a reprieve? Had I accomplished something in the meantime? I didn’t know what to think.

You said there could have been other reasons. Okay. What WAS the reason you started going by “Sam”?

    my name was changed in the fourth grade. the reason was the morris the cat commercials, and people getting the shit beat out of them for calling me morris the cat. the principle caught me bashing a kid into a locker @ skool and the next day my name was sam

Why Sam?
    after pa’s best friend

Morris the Cat’s the reason you stopped using Morris?
    that is the only reason my name was changed. now so many peeps know me as sam that it is impossible to get back to morris although i have a couple of old friends that do still call me morris

[Speechless]

didn’t you read my google+ about?
    No....

...What does your Google+ about say about your name?
    it says Morris Story (real name) prowdly named after Morris Dean [The uppercase letters do appear in Morris Story's Google+ about.]

May I call you Morris now?
    of course
_______________
Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean and Morris Story

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