Encyclopedia of Me - K

K is for Katherine - My name is Katherine and my parents decided very early on to call me Katie. Katherine is from the Greek and means "pure" and "virginal". I was born when the name Kathy was all the rage. So I was the only Katie I knew in a crowd of Kathys. I spent a lot of time correcting people who read Katherine and assumed I was called Kathy, doctors, teachers, everyone. These days Katie is much more popular but I still have to correct some people. I knew another girl in school named Katherine...just Katherine. She had a hugely hard time getting people to respect her name and not shorten it. I also had a 5th grade teacher who called us all by our last names. Not only that, he shortened them. He claimed he had too many brothers and sisters in class over the years and he couldn't keep the first names straight. I was only 10 years old but I didn't buy it. The other teachers didn't have a problem and I knew it was just plain rude not to address someone by their right name. Not using someone's right name is a common way to show disrespect. I couldn't articulate it then but he was one teacher who certainly didn't earn any respect from me!