San (Saint) ROCCO

This is the church of Saint Rocco in Venice Italy. This Catholic saint is known by several names including Roc, Roch, Rok, and in English...Rock, all dependent upon what country you are in. You are probably wondering why I am writing about this man who lived 1400 years ago. I was born Catholic and was baptized and confirmed. Confirmation is a rip-off of the Jewish ceremony called the Bar Mitzvah which occurs at age 13. When I was confirmed, I had to pick a confirmation name to add to my other names (First-Middle-Confirmation-Last) and let the nun who was leading the ceremony know of my choice. She was aghast at my choice of Rock(y) and I was reprimanded to chose something else or she would do it for me. The Bishop who was officiating stepped in at this time and said something like "Sister, you have to spend some more time studying Church history, if you did you would know that this young man has selected one of my favorite Saints." I was confirmed as Rocco and its variations.

Neither the Kitty nor I like the idea of being called Grandma, Grandpa, pop-pop, Papi (Spanish) or anything similar. So when the grand-babies were born we kind of liked Rocky and Kitty. Kitty was easy for them to say and it still is. Rocky was not so easy and became Yockey. So even now, when the twins are 4 and speak English fluently, I am still Yockey. Too bad I can't go back to 13 years old and ask the Bishop if there is a Saint Yock.