What's in a name

One of my favourite things about interacting with people online is that everyone just accepts it when you have a non-traditional name. No-one questions it. There's no look of confusion, no repeating myself, no having to spell it out.

I have spent my whole life confirming that yes Blaise is my name, this is how you say it, spell it, and yes I'm sure that's my name. Don't get me wrong, I love having a 'different' name, I loved not being a Jessica, an Ashley, a Louise, a Michael, a David, a James and so on like everyone I went to school with but oh I got tired of confirming my name at times.

But sometimes I enjoy the telling of the story about it - because it has a story.
Blaise.
It is the French form of the Roman name Blasius, which was derived from Latin blaesus meaning "lisping". I do not have a lisp. Or any other kind of speech impediment. No-one in my immediate family, that I'm aware of, has or had a lisp or speech impediment.

There's a Saint Blaise who is the patron saint of, among other things, wool combers (and the wool industry as a whole) and ENT illnesses.

I am named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and philosopher Blaise Pascal who my parents bonded over when they met in university. Mum did something involving statistics & probability (don't ask me what, my brain glazes over at the mention of anything maths-y) and my dad did philosophy & religion.

I low-key think that's a pretty cool origin story for me