What's in a Name?

Sailors have named their boats for centuries, and superstition often played a role in selection — feminine names were thought to bring good luck, six letter names were unlucky and seven letter names lucky (Titanic excluded I guess).

Naming a home has been a treasured custom, particularly in the days before houses had street numbers. It is a popular custom in England, not just by the Royals but by all classes.

Beach houses are often named to help with rentals. Realtors advise clients to choose something catchy so the renter will easily remember the name, or to select a whimsical name to attract renters to their beach house.

But oftentimes the name of a boat or beach house ends up revealing a lot about the owner/s. They tell a story or reflect their owner’s obsessions, professions and/or funny side. Often they tell a story.

One thing they have in common is the ingenuity that goes into creating the name.

Since we find ourselves curious, we will be cruising around the area in the next few weeks to get the stories behind the names and we’ll share a few of them each week. Maybe we’ll be knocking on your door or asking permission to come aboard.

“Yes Dear”

David P. Watson bought his Hydra Sport recently and decided he wanted to name it “Karen E.” after his wife, since it is a maritime tradition. Seems Karen E. had other ideas.

“I didn’t want any part of that; I thought that was just awful!” Karen Watson said.

“After some discussion about my choice of using her name, I finally said ‘Yes Dear’,” David explains.

“That’s his pat answer for everything, so I suggested that “Yes Dear” was the perfect name for him to call the boat,” Karen said. And so it was the name he christened the boat with.

Karen is not much of a fisherwoman. According to David she is ready to come in after only a couple hours. He bought the boat pretty exclusively for fishing but says his fishing partner is his sister-in-law from Holly Ridge, Debbie Weir who will go out and stay out with him whenever he wants.

The teenage grandkids also enjoy the boat when they visit from Connecticut, he has three, one is still an infant and too young to boat.

David and Karen E. live in Sneads Ferry near the water.

Loggerhead

Ann Tumblin has a cottage in Topsail Beach she and her husband, Bill bought in 1988 — June 16, 1988 to be exact. They drove from their home in Apex to Burgaw to see the attorney and close on the beach house then drove directly over to the island to see it.

“When we pulled into the driveway, there was a police car parked here and we wondered what the heck was could be happening and of course we were a bit worried, Tumblin explained. “We got out on the oceanfront deck and we saw what all the commotion was about. A sea turtle had come up onto the beach, it was the middle of the day which is unusual I now know, and she was building a nest directly in front of our house! Back then I knew nothing about sea turtles, but I knew it was amazing!”

Tumblin said they felt there was no other name but Loggerhead for the house from that moment.

They have pictures of the miraculous event hanging inside the beach house neighbors captured and gave them of that day, since they didn’t even have a camera with them.

Tumblin immediately curious, set out to learn all she possibly could about the creature loggerhead.

“I met Jean and Karen Beasley shortly after that; the turtle project was just in the beginning phase back then, and learned things from them,” she said. And she continued to learn all she could about them.

Being a teacher by profession, it ultimately led her to get involved in the Science Teacher Project in partnership with N.C. State and she did her project on sea turtles.

Now she spends her time at the beach reading and relaxing on the deck, she no longer teaches in public schools but now teaches Lamaze classes.

Of course she wouldn’t mind seeing another loggerhead make a nest in front of her beach house someday.

We would love to hear from you if you would like to share your boat or house story and name with us.

E-mail us at sulbrich@freedomenc.com or topsail_editor@freedomenc.com