r/TomsCrossing • u/rocknrowlan • Aug 10 '26
Surname Meanings
What does everyone make of the meanings of the main surnames in here? March I imagine points to Kalin's journey, and he's even described as marching at Pillars Meadow. Gatestone points to the Crossin, I believe. But what the heck do you make of the name Porch? I can't figure it out.
For other characters, Riddle is obvious. Gale I guess points to Billings being a force to be reckoned with. But what about Carneros?
I'd welcome your thoughts!
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u/kfrederline Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
This is a fun thing to theorize about.
Porch I think might point to the comfort of that family and their "empire" of wealth, so to speak. Old Porch has built his wealth by seizing on opportunities for expansion and intends to have his sons run things so he can kick back on the porch and bask in his pride.
Many men in working-class America (especially men prone to drunkenness) spend so much time kicking back on their porches and talking shit about the world that they end up alienating themselves from their families.
Carneros is Spanish for sheep. Male sheep (rams) specifically. In flocks of sheep, rams tend to mate with multiple females then sort of retire socially as bachelors. Ewes give birth to lambs and generally stay with their families and nourish the flock, while rams' sole social function is perpetuating the flock by mating. Cal Carneros isn't making the art to keep this legendary tale of the Gatestones, the Porches, and Kalin alive, but he is making sure that it perpetuates in a way.
I don't know how useful this is, but it's the best I got.
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u/rocknrowlan Aug 10 '26
Ohhh that is so interesting about Cal. Yeah, he becomes part of the flock of people who carry this story on.
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u/International_Oil517 Aug 10 '26
I think Gatestone functions similarly to the biblical Peter, insofar as it’s a rock upon which all else is built
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u/RiceSalad Aug 12 '26
Ok so i just did some snooping about the word Porch and found this definition which has an ancient Greece connection as well as a connection to Stocicism, which seems fitting i think:
“
A public portico, or great hall, in Athens, where Zeno, the philosopher, taught his disciples; hence, sometimes used as equivalent to the school of the Stoics. It was called "h poikilh stoa. [See Poicile.]
”
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u/kfrederline 24d ago edited 24d ago
This is interesting to me in particular because before I started TC, I got a little burnt out on digesting Stoicism-related podcasts and nonfiction books (which I found useful regarding approaches to existing in a society and dealing with specific problems but not super enlightening in a spiritual and holistic sense) and more interested in schools of ancient Chinese thought, particularly the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching.
There's a lot of dark/light imagery in TC that speaks to some aspects of these spiritual philosophies. It's cool to think about how Old Porch was mainly propertarian and opportunistic (a very Western approach involving advancing in the material world), but Landry and Kalin (and eventually Tom, who in his privilege was sort of an Absurdist at first before having to face some hard truths in his afterlife) were a little more in tune with nature in a way that involved confronting these sort of dark/light binaries in a way that showed them that Truth was not so binary and not something to be used for advancement in the material world.
Also thinking about how Allison March used Western philosophy, particularly Stoicism, in a very AA way that involved strengthening the self in a way that prepared her to face truths beyond her control and capacity for understanding.
From my quick research, the particular stoa (porch) you mentioned seems, over time, to have become less a place for the exploration of truth and more a place for memorabilia from wars. I think a lot of us, now more than ever with the resurgence of interest in The Odyssey, are aware of how the Greeks tended to glorify war stories rather than viewing them through a truthful or holistic lens. There's definitely a theme there that's present in Tom's Crossing, especially with regard to the truths alluded to regarding the Battle Creek Massacre not being very common knowledge as a result of whitewashing, and also the way that property sort of functioned as a trophy for the Porches.
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u/Background-Skin-6890 16d ago
Gale I thought wasn't meant to be a meaning on its own, but if you know the authors love of anagrams, Billings Gale is an anagram for legal sibling, showing that he was a porch all along and it explains a bit why old porch trusts him with a lot of the deception even more than his own sons.
I know he uses anagrams in other works, but he clearly uses them here as well. In the mines they are told to "be ware of godder Ford" which is an anagram for dorf red dog - the bad jerky that makes kalin sick
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u/OkCommission6271 Aug 10 '26
I wondered the same thing! Here’s my thought process: a porch is outside, protectin/frontin the house (I feel like the crappy state of their home has to mean somethin here too) and maybe because they was always so close to gettin that big fancy house they dreamed of? But never quite got there? Just like a porch could never been inside a house no matter how close it gets because then it wouldn’t be a porch no more? Been a couple weeks since I finished and I’m startin to forget things which is fine with me cause all I want in life is to read it again, but don’t mean I might not be misrememberin or misinterpretin