[ WP ] : Children are named by the traits they are fated to have - Brave , Serene , Deeply Caring , Unmoved - and of course your lovely daughter , Bites People .

We left the hospital priest's office in tears, my husband Patience carrying our child to his shoulder. Whatever the wise old woman in the incense-filled room had seen, we could not know; it was horrifying, though, to think that our beautiful baby girl, just born the day prior, would be known only as what was supposedly her greatest achievement: `` Bites People.'' Although our child had no propensity for nibbling on things, we were cautious to ensure our child would not be left unattended to go up to a stranger on the playground to bite, or be left alone with her teachers, and we especially avoided hiring babysitters. She was homeschooled. When Bites People was 9, I became pregnant again; this child was named Brilliant. Bites People had not yet lived up to her name ( we began to despise the priest ) so she was allowed to watch her little sister. Postpartum left me unable to work, so I began to stay home while Patience joined the workforce. I regularly visited him at work, asking our obedient and actually quite attentive and trustworthy daughter at home to care for her little sister for the short period. 
 One fateful day, I returned home to find the eldest had lived up to her namesake. 
 The newspaper later showed photographs of our house in shambles, with blood on the floor; the only thing I remember when I entered through the front door, broken and left wide open, was Brilliant, screaming at the top of her lungs from where she had been hidden from the robbers under the bathroom sink. Every news report was laden with praises, just as with Bites people's obituary. Although Bites People's name was appropriate, perhaps she should have been known as Fierce, or as Defender. 
 The community mourned the loss of a hero; nobody would again ever question the intent of a name.
