Missy's names seem to be selected by Wren, since the naming of Missy's older brother Davis was determined by the Whitman's habit — he just had to be Franklin Davis Whitman IV.
Missy's name is really interesting. Melissa Lark is not only completely mirrored from Lorelei Wren but also contains a double reference to Kendall Payton.
Let us have a look to the middle names first. Both Lark and Wren are the names of little songbirds. Wrens (Troglodytidae) have 55 species, but only one, the Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) also lives in Europe. Larks (Alaudidae) live elsewhere with only one species, the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) spreaded in America. BTW, wrens are mating for whole life... ;-)
The Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) is the state bird for South Carolina. (sic!) We know where SC is. (Maybe it should better read: We know what is in SC.) (Maybe Wren is standing for a R/L Caroline.)
Lark is also the name of a little river in England and here we see a reference to Kendall — since Kendal (a variation of the name Kendall) is a town on the River Kent and the name Kendall means (according to www.behindthename.com ) 'valley of the Kent'.
Let us turn now to the first given names. Missy is a short form of Melissa, what means 'bee' in ancient Greek. Melissa is the name of Trip's (late) mother but also Kendall's mother bears that name. Therefore, Missy is having a double references to Kendall in both of her given names. I guess, that even the phonetic similarity from 'bee' to 'bi' (as in 'bisexual') is not really offside. Maybe some readers remember a book by Emmanuelle Arsan, "The Joys of a Woman", in which a bisexual woman named Bee appeared. 'Bee' could also mean 'bi' as in 'double' since Missy is the Withman's second child.
The name Lorelei has its origin in old Germanic mythology while Melissa has its roots in ancient Greek mythology. Melissa was a nymph that cared for young Zeus (Paul?) but also the name of the fairy who helped Rogero (Paul?) escape from the witch Alcina (Gina) in the poem 'Orlando_Furioso' by Ariosto. Though the connection between Rogero and Paul I have made is really furious, drawn through aeronautic speech ('roger!') while the similarity of 'G' and 'C' between Alcina and Gina can be found more easy.
Interesting is that Lorelei was a man trapping woman — singing like a bird (sic!) — while Melissa was a helper to escape.
It is amazing how Nick has created names of certain persons in his universe!
For further reading see wikipedia (a really great web-invention!) at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Lark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Kent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Wren
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Furioso
Last revised: Apr. 18th, 2005
The Summer Camp Universe and its characters are © 2002-2006 Nick Scipio
This text and the graphic © 2005 FranzKafka79