What's in a name?

Who would have thought that choosing a name for the boat would be so difficult?

It took us months to find one we agreed upon. When we originally started thinking about the boat and drew up our spec we were going to call the boat 'Lock, Stock & Pension'. After a while that began to pall and we started coming up with new ideas. Consulted the members of the CanalWorld Forum to see if there were any "do's and don'ts" (either official or unofficial) about naming a boat. Apparently it is fairly naff to call your boat by a combination of his & her names; beware words that can be mispronounced; jokey names tend to become unfunny after a while (That was "Welle'rnd Rest" out the window). E-mails exchanged with Nic in Paris to see if there was an appropriate French phrase for something like "A Country Cottage" (after all that was what we would have bought if we hadn't gone for the boat).

At one stage, we had a list of about 50 names but we never managed to agree on the same one at the same time. We were close to agreement on "Serendipity" or "Stargazer" but when I rang British Waterways Board there were already about 30 boats with one or other of these. (BWB don't restrict you to a unique name but some other licensing authorities do). Off to the library for a book of baby's names and a book of Latin phrases. By the time the boat went in the water we still hadn't decided on a name - we were down to two by then - "Tabassum" (which means Smile in Arabic) and "Per Angusta" (a Latin phrase I thought had an appropriate translation).

Suppose it is a bit like naming a dog, once you see it, the right name becomes obvious. Once we saw the boat, we thought that Per Angusta was right (subject to me having the translation right). Quick exchange of e-mails with Quintas Latin Translation Services and it was official - the boat is called "Per Angusta". And the meaning .....

Through Narrow Places.

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