My Awesome Post

Remember how much fun the "Behind My Name" assignment was? It was so fun that I had to make a post about it as well. Assignment #12 is so much fun that I also want to write my own post about it.

Miss Pollock's Awesome Things

I am writing a post in response to Miss P's Assignment #12

Part 1 - Awesome Things from 1000 Awesome Things

I read this blog everyday and it almost always brings a smile to my face. Lately, there have been three posts that really spoke to me.

Awesome Thing #375 - Finding out someone has the same birthday as you

Last week, during Interviews, the teachers all met up in the staff room to wish Mrs. Kenward a fond farewell and good luck with her new baby. While we were there, we started talking about birthdates and due dates. Mrs. Seabrook said that her birthday was in January. My birthday's also in January, and, as I always do, I asked her, "What day?". To my delight, she replied "The 13th!). Mrs. Seabrook and I have the SAME BIRTHDAY! It was so exciting. Now, you can all put January 13th on your calendars as the most important day of the year!

Awesome Thing #376 - Realizing you still remember the words to a song you haven't heard in years

Awesome Thing #378 - Finally making it past whatever was causing traffic to slow down

Part 2 - My Very Own Awesome Thing

Awesome Thing #1001 -

THIS IS A POST IN PROGRESS, BUT I WANTED TO POST IT AS IT IS AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU CAN LAY OUT YOUR POST!

Behind MY Name

I saw how much fun you were all having with Assignment #3 - Behind Your Name and I decided to join in! Also, you can take a look at this as a sample for completing your own assignment. Make it juicy!


Behind My Name - Shauna Elizabeth Pollock (Salvatore) (when you do your post, include only your first and middle names unless you get parental permission to include your surname/s. I'm a grown up so I didn't need parental permission. Yes, it rocks to be old!)

Before I started this assignment, I thought my name was pretty great, because it's uncommon enough that I feel pretty unique and when I meet another "Shauna" (especially if it's spelled the same!), I get really excited and feel like we're somehow linked. I also like that it rhymes with Madonna, iguana and banana (if you say it in a British accent).

I think my parents chose this name for me because they thought it was a nice name. My Aunt Lisa says that she pressured them to use it because she had a crush on Shaun Cassidy. My dad says he knew a nurse that was named Shauna and she was really nice. My mom seemed pretty clueless about girls names, as she was SURE I was going to be a boy and she wanted me to be "Jared Daniel". I was almost named "Jana" which is a name I don't like as much as my own, but there was a cool story to it. My maternal grandparents are "Jack" and "Verna" so "Ja" from Jack and "-na" from Verna = "Jana", plus, I was born in January. However, my aunt got pregnant for my cousin shortly after my mom got pregnant with me and my aunt wanted to name her baby (if it was a girl) "Jenna". Many of you know that Jenna is like a sister to me and her babies, Andy and Will are my precious nephews. I'm glad we're not Jana and Jenna. That's just a little too precious.



After searching on Behind the Name and Baby Names, I learned that my name means "God is gracious". It took a while to find it on Behind the Name, because it took me through all the versions of my name: Shauna - Shaun - Sean - John.

Some other interesting things I learned are that Shauna has only once in history been in the top 300 girls names. When I was born, it was the 299th most popular girls name!

I think my name does suit me because I like the way it sounds coming out of my mouth, I love writing it and, like I said before, I like how unique it is. The meaning of my name doesn't really have anything to do with my life, but it's a great name, in my opinion. (Plus, "Shauna Pollock" sounds a lot like "Shopaholic" which is funny to me.)

If I could give myself a new name it would be something really funky and gender ambiguous like Vaughn or Hendrix (after Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimi Hendrix, really amazing guitarists).

Other information: I looked up the origins of my full name.
Shauna = God is gracious
Elizabeth = my god is a vow
Pollock = coronet (a horn)
Salvatore = rescuer

Basically, I'll conclude that I am a gracious, promise keeping rescuer who is as loud as a hooting coronet. Do you think that's about right?

This is the actual Pollock family crest. The logo means "boldly and strongly" and the boar pierced with the arrow means Pollocks fight to the death. Awesome.

Assignment #3 - Behind Your Name

Good morning, bloggers.

As you probably remember, at the beginning of the year, I asked you to fill out a questionnaire so I could get to know you better. A few of the questions centred around your name. I asked you what you liked to be called and if you knew of any special significance behind your name.

Inspired by the wonderful Mrs. Burke, I have decided on your next assignment.

I would like you to do some research about your name and write a post telling us what you learned. As well, you are going to learn to create a hyperlink for this post.

First, go to the website, Behind the Name. Open it in a new tab in your browser so you can still have my blog and your blog open. Search for your name. You can type in your name to the search bar or search alphabetically.

Another site that has lots of interesting information about names is Baby Names. Once you have found your name, you can click on "more info" and see a chart demonstrating how popular your name has been in different years. At the bottom of the "more info" page, you can fill out a survey about your name to help the administrators of the website enhance their information. You may do this when you are done writing your post.

Tip: Search your full first name, not a shortened part. For example, if you are Isabella, but everyone calls you "Bella", search "Isabella" to get the most information.

Find out the meaning or the root of your name. My first name is Shauna and when I searched for it, I was directed by a link to "Shaun", then "Sean", then "John" before I got information about the root meaning of my name. You can have a look and see why I am gracious. You may have to follow a similar path to find out where your name started (the roots of it).

Start a new post. In this post, you will answer several questions in full sentences. You may need to copy my text and fill in the blanks.

Start off your post by linking back to this assignment.

Behind My Name: ________ (fill in your name)

Before I started this assignment, I thought my name was ______, because _________.
I think my parents chose this name for me because __________________________.

After searching on Behind the Name (create a link here), I learned that my name means ____________ (use your own words here).

Some other interesting things I learned are _______________________ (maybe there was extra information, you learned the root of your name or where it comes from or who are some famous people with the same name, maybe you looked up your middle or last name).

I think my name does/does not (select one) suit me because ___________________.

If I could give myself a new name, it would be ______________, because _________________. (Connor, this would be an OK time to talk about "Dragon"!)

You may add any extra comments or reflections about your name at the end of the post.


For a bonus, look up the name of a character in a book, movie or TV show that you like and write about why that name does/does not suit that character's personality.

For a sample of how you can do a great job on this assignment, check out mine or Hannah's.

Please leave a comment at the bottom of this post when you have completed this assignment. Make sure you are logged in so I can easily access your blog.