What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

10 May 2012

I Missed A Few

In case you missed it, during the A to Z Challenge I blogged (mostly) about names and their origin. Some of the names came from my current WiP, some were family members, and some I just chose at random. However, there were plenty of days when the choice was close, because there were lots of names I could have picked that day. So, I have a handful of posts planned on names that I like but couldn't write about during A to Z. (I suppose this could be my new Thursday thing!)

Chet
Short form of Chester, from the Latin word meaning "fortified place." Got up to the 610th most popular name for boys in the U.S. in 1963. Fell out of the top 1000 in 1985, made a brief resurgence in '87 (#959), but hasn't cracked the top 1000 since.

The Google images that came up when
I searched for Chet were either dull or
disturbing. This was one of the good
ones. Source.
Famous Chets: I'm having to ignore my rule about only posting ones I've heard of! Wikipedia says:
My Chets: I knew one person named Chet when I was very young. He was an elderly man at church who was friends with my grandparents. It's possible that he gave me candy or something. He died when I was pretty small; either his or my great-grandfather's was the first death I remember. 

I currently have a Chet in my WiP. He's Sybil's older brother, and is one of those perfect older siblings; that is, mum and dad think he's perfect, and the teachers, too, but the siblings know better. He's obnoxiously bossy and tends to jump into situations where he isn't really wanted or needed (traits he shares with me). But, he's also a good guy, and even though he irritates his siblings, he is the family peacemaker and no one really hates him. Yet. And his name's meaning, "Fortified Place", really works for him, because he's introduced as a 16-year-old school prefect who is oozing with self-confidence, so much that younger students seek him out for advice. (Not his own siblings, of course.)

Do you know any Chets? What really awful character quirk should I give my Chet?

Source: Behind the Name

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Chet is not a name that is familiar in England, but is does sound solid and reliable.

Kittie Howard said...

OMG, we had a cat named Chester. He was a 'fortified place' in the feline world. Loved that cat!

PT Dilloway said...

I wrote a story called Chet Finley vs. The Machines of Fate. You can read it online here (http://chetfinley.blogspot.com)

I chose Chet in large part because it sounds so nerdy that it's pretty much the opposite of a heroic name in an action story.

Grahame said...

The Hardy Boys' friend and cohort was Chet.