[ 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 .

People often say that we got our surname because of our humanity, but the reality is that we got our surname through struggle, a bitter path that we trod down to try and make something great of our lives. In the end it was realized that we are never going to be the Custodians or the Bankers, we occupied the middle of society and in many way represented the best parts of both worlds. 
 
 So we were given the surname People, because that's what we are. A large family that exists in almost every continent, nation and community. I write this account specifically of my small part of the Clan of People. I do not assume that my group has any special significance among them, but I do know that the story of one of our own is unique, special and worthy of being shared. 
 
 My name is Mindful People. In my youth I was blessed with a temperament that required me to look at all sides before making decisions. As a baby I did not reach for the first toy I saw, I looked and waited until I had taken in all the options prior to making my selection. As I grew this trait continued. So much so that some people thought I should be named Picky util they had spent more time around me. 
 
 Changing names has never been uncommon. It is often useful to change someone's name if their disposition as an adolescent or adult does n't match the name given to them as a babe. I was sure that would be the case for my lovely niece, Bites. 
 
 Bites People is the daughter of my brother, Hits. Hits was named for his propensity to flail his arms about whenever a person's face got to close. As a young man he got in many fights of which he was never the instigator, but always the victor. This made him a great friend of all the smaller and less popular kids at school. He became their defender and, dare I say, relished his ability to be a bulwark in their cause. 
 
 As an adult he served in the military and then as a policeman. Following a straight line to for anyone who had noticed these tendencies. While serving in the military he met and marries a wonderful woman named Blushes. She was a perfect counterpoint to Hits' personality. Demure when Hits was boisterous, yet never holding her tongue when she saw something that needed to be addressed. 
 
 When Hits left the military they moved to a suburb outside of Dallas Texas. Hits got on the local police force and Blushes went to work as a teacher at the local Junior High. And in their small house in the suburb of Dallas is where they gave birth to their first child. 
 
 She was a beautiful baby with a full head of red hair. As is tradition, they decided to wait one week to name her. They thought this was a good thing since less than four hours after her birth she bit Blushes when offered a breast for the first time. Before the first day of her life had passed, she'd also bitten her father and two nurses. She did n't cry, she did n't thrash and wail. She was peaceful and then she bit. 
 
 On the fifth day after her birth Hits was in a state of panic. He was all too aware that her most constant and outstanding trait was that she was a biter, but he could n't bring himself to name her that. He was looking for any other trait to hang a moniker onto than that. He called me and voiced his concerns. If he named her something that was n't evident in her temperament everyone would know and consider him dishonest. But to name a beautiful girl after her habit of biting people just seemed cruel. 
 
 He was so distraught over the situation that I rearranged my week and took the first flight I could get down to visit them. True to my name I considered all the different options on my way down. When I arrived I told Hits and Blushes my idea. Nobody was expecting her to be named for two more days. We could stretch it to three if we needed to and nobody would suspect anything out of the ordinary. During the next two days we would expose her to all sorts of activities, toys and more in order to find something else that she liked even more than biting. 
 
 They agreed with me and feeling the tenseness in the air start to lift, I asked to be introduced to my first niece. She was laying in her crib, a mobile churning overhead, chewing on the ear of a teddy bear. Truly a beautiful baby. I reached into the crib to pick her up and could feel my brother stiffen behind me, but I had a plan. I would pick her up with the bear she gnawing on and hold them together. In my mind this would occupy her need to bite on something and allow us a positive to move forward with. After all Cuddles is a perfectly respectable name. 
 
 Peacefully I picked her up and held her in front of me. She seemed to be smiling, though it was hard to tell with the teddy's ear in her mouth. So I held her closer. Then as soon as I had let her lay her head on my shoulder I felt the teddy bear fall and she bit my neck. `` Incredible'' I thought, `` at an age where few can even hold their head up, she was able to turn her head and bite my neck.'' 
 
 While mildly painful, she did n't try to injure me, just gave me a bite and then relaxed. Hits had missed what happened, but Blushes was more tense now than ever. I calmed her by mentioning that she had only bit me briefly and now was content to cuddle. We spent a good hour like this and then Blushes took her from me, excited to get to cuddle her baby. It did n't work out that way. The babe laid her head against her neck. Then bit. After the bite she was content to cuddle again. 
 
 We took turns holding her for the rest of the day and the pattern continued. We'd pass her by and she would peacefully lay down her head, bite, then cuddle. Not a promising situation. 
 
 By the time Blushes put her down for bed that night I knew my plan was foolish. The baby's key trait was plane for anyone to see. Sure her secondary traits were wonderful, but Bites Cuddles People was not a name to be proud of. So we continued with the plan. 
 
 The next morning I went to the store and bought toys of all shapes, sizes and types. I bought soft ones and hard ones, some made noise while others appeared to be engineered to be completely silent. 
 
 One at a time we placed gave them to her for inspection. Her reaction with every single one was the same. Look at it, feel it, bite it. We took her out on a walk and introduced her to butterflies and caterpillars. She showed appreciation for all of the sights and sounds, but no particular interest in any one thing. 
 
 By the time the day was over it was decided, her name had to be Bites. Hits and Blushes were beside themselves, so I took it on myself as the older brother to remind Hits of his own name. 
 
 `` Hits'' I said, `` You've always had your name, but I remember how upset Mom and Dad where when they had to name you. Dad told me something important when they did. He told me that just because you are named something that other people might find off putting, does n't mean you have to live up to the worst parts of your name's trait. You decided that just because you had a particular inclination to hit that it did n't mean you could n't chose who you would hit. 
 
 You've lived your life serving others, protecting those who are less able to protect themselves. Who would have known that's what you would grow to do? Just because her name is Bites, does n't mean we have to assume she will live with that name forever. In time she may show a quality that is more pronounced and it can be changed.'' 
 
 So it was that Hits and Blushes named their baby daughter. Hoping as we all did that in time people would gravitate towards her middle name. 
 
 Bites did grow out of the constant need to bite everyone that so much as gave her a hug. She grew into a beautiful young woman with a kind disposition. She was always a good student, but never a great one. She had good friends but never just those of one stripe. There was never anything that stood out enough to justify renaming Bites. 
 
 She did n't seem to mind though, because no matter what her name, her personality was the type that gathered people to it. Like moths to the flame they were drawn to her consistently cheerful demeanor. 
 
 The one kink in the hose was, while her peers could look past her name and see the person, many adults had a hard time looking past it. So at the age of 18 Bites set off to forge a new trait for herself. She took it upon herself to study drama and became an accomplished actress at the collegiate level. 
 
 Then she started writing vampire novels and got local fame for the first two that I feel proud to have been able to publish for her. By the time she graduated college she had three more novels ready to be published, so I invested heavily in the printing and publishing of her third novel. The initial run was three times as many copies as we had done of her second novel and I started to travel around the country trying to secure shelf space at as many book stores as I could. 
 
 Within a week of the books release we had sold more copies than her first two novels combined. The first printing sold out in less than two weeks and the second printing in less than a month. She started going on talk shows and it was on one of those shows that she became a household name. 
 
 Everyone had just assumed she was using a pen name, but on that show she addressed it and told the world the story of being named. You know her novels `` Love Bites'', `` Bite Out of Crime'' and `` Bite Me'', now you know the story of Bites Cuddles People.
