Mandy LoveCox

I was born just after a generation in which parents were creating new last names for their children. These names weren’t necessarily “made up” by parents, but created. It involved taking the last names of both parents and creating a new last name for their children from a mix of the two. In my mind, this was a curious time. I feel as though these “creations” could become a beautiful compilation of two people, just as their children should be. Or, it could become a debacle, just as their child could be. My parents, or so I’m told, strongly contemplated this idea. They toyed with it so intently that I came close to the failure that could have been found in the combination of their two names. Fortunately, my parents moved on from the idea, as did almost everyone else after this free love generation. I was fortunate for many reasons, the main reason being my fathers last name (and my current last name) is Lovejoy, my mother’s…Cox. And so, in combining names I would have proudly carried the name Lovecox. That’s right, of all the combinations created (Coxjoy, Coxlove) my parents had settled on Lovecox. Take a moment to absorb this, as I did when I first learned of this idea. You can take another moment if you like to find the magnificent hilarity that I have come to find in it. I often wonder what may have become of me with a name like Lovecox, I mean, besides the endless torment of childish taunting. Would I embrace it? Would I wield it proudly like a family crest? Would I represent my name: Mandy Love Cox? I’ll never know. However, I sometimes feel as though I was raised with that name. I’m proud of my story, well, mostly proud that my parents were intelligent and thoughtful enough to not let that happen to their children (I do have two older brothers as well), but also proud that somewhere in me, there is a LoveCox just waiting to get out. That may very well be where all this began, but no one can ever really be sure…