Darien

My dad convinced my mom that it was a good name. He had heard it while living in South America. Darien is a Portuguese-derived place name common in Panama.

For thirty years I never met another Darien, although I learned about Darien, Connecticut, and Darien-other-places.

Then, my dad saw a Darien license plate. So I knew there were some others. Then, I heard a mom refer to her little daughter by name: my name. That was the first time I met someone who shared my name.

Recently, there has been a spate of Dariens. There are three of us at my high school these days: the librarian (me), a student who enjoys frequent conferences with the administrators, and an unassuming, pleasant student who flies under the radar.

Admitting that I am a librarian brings up the embarrassing but obvious fact that I clearly should have selected a different profession.  But, I didn't. I sometimes introduce myself as Darien the Librarian. I have found that among "mature" people and theater geeks, my name is easy to remember because they make the obvious connection to Music Man. Unfortunate, but useful.

My favorite Darien is someone I've never met, who contacted me on Facebook. He is a teenage musician living in Kentucky. We send each other kooky comments from time to time. We have the same first name, the same last name, and the same nickname. Boy Howdy!