A Rose by Any Other Name

Today at our 5th avenue store we had a lovely customer come in with her two children. She was in the store for about half an hour, so I got a pretty good look at her. She was pretty tall with dirty blond hair, a Brooklyn accent, and a definite air of Debra-ness. Imagine my surprise then when she gave me her credit card and I saw that her first name was (drumroll) Debra! Not Deb-O-Rah, a name that paints a completely different mental picture (one that involves brown hair and suburbia), but Debra. A Debra is someone who means business.

Nicole says that her whole life people have called her either Renee or Michelle. In fact, her parents almost named her Michelle before switching at the last minute to the much cooler Nicole. How is it that certain names become associated with certain physical attributes? For example, "Jessica" in my mind always has very dark hair, while "Lizzie" is a red head. I've never met another Jesselyn, which would explain why I'm so uniquely and exotically attractive. Here's the mental picture I get when I think of a few other names:

Loretta:

Marie:

Angel:

Nadya:
Ajia:
Nicole: