Why are pots called pots and books called books? Indeed how did objects get their names? This thought often comes to me especially when I can’t recall the name of an object or get the name wrong.

What’s in a name ? the Bard asked ,

A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

So is a name just a name? Or does it have some other meaning?

I once read somewhere that while naming a child in China the parents threw some pots in the air and depending on the sounds they heard, the child they named was Tang and Ting or whatever. Obviously this is not true because a Chinaman did explain how he got his name – his family name and his given name. Thus all babies are named with a purpose – either after a loved one, a godparent, a patron saint , a name that is popular in the family, a name that is trending or as some people prefer, a name of God so that every time the child is called, the name of the Lord is invoked.

While naming children is easy what about naming objects? Well most people would say that many objects take their name from their function. For instance a photocopier is called a photocopier because it makes a photographic copy of a document.

Which brings me to the reason for this post – why is a slipper called a slipper? Is it because it is easy to slip on or is it because it slips easily? I found out the reason why yesterday when I performed the perfect split over a tiny bit of water accidentally dropped on the floor.

As usual when accidents are meant to happen they do, and after dinner when the whole household was busy chatting and catching up, I found that I had to fetch something. And before you could say Jack Robinson, I was on the floor with my legs in opposite directions – something which I could never do despite my years of yoga. There was a flurry of activity as everyone came rushing to lift me up, accompanied by Wow Dinga’s wails which grew louder as he sensed something majorly going wrong. Everyone thought I’d hurt my tail bone or worse still my wrist which broke the fall but luckily it was just a bruised knee – one that turned red and will soon turn blue and green before it turns a sickly yellow on its way to normalcy.

That’s when I realised how the slipper got its name – because it is easy to slip when wearing a rubber slipper!

This post is part of the Write Tribe ProBlogger September Challenge