My daughter wants her name to be Leah. Drama queen that she is, she cries, “Why didn’t you name me Leah?!?!?! I hate my name!!”
(She happens to have a beautiful and unique name – Cassandra. At least I think so.)
But I can relate. I love my name now, but I didn’t always. And even though I love my name, I still sometimes imagine my alter ego with another name.
Scarlett.
Think Scarlett from Gone With The Wind. Passionate. Fearless. Strong. Childish. It’s a name that would make me feel like I could take on the world. Unless I’d been given that name at birth, in which case I’m sure it wouldn’t render the same feelings at all.
Here’s the funny thing about names: Some names get attached to pop culture. Others get attached to religion or ethnicity. Sometimes you love or hate a name based on someone you knew in your past. And no matter how YOU feel about your name, odds are that other people don’t feel the same way at all.
This post was brought to you by today’s Reverb 10 prompt: New name. Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?
{ 4 comments }
Shannon, I think that’s pretty typical. Schuyler went through a phase where she decided she hated her name. At one point she was insisting everyone call her Plantica Mint. She outgrew that rather quickly and then started playing with the spelling of her name. That bothered me more than anything because I agonized over the way to spell her name and I rather liked it. She was just tired of people (including voice recog on cell phones) pronouncing it “shoo-ler”. Evangeline recently went through a phase where she decided she didn’t want to be called Vani but Eva. The only problem was she didn’t respond to Eva. Eva? Eva? Eva! Vani? Yes mommy but would you please call me Eva?
Has she met any Leahs? ‘Cause I only know one, and the thought of sharing her name. . . well, yeah. . .
This is very typical of youngsters as they try to make their own identity. The fact is that your name is what you make of it in the eyes of others. As Shakespeare said ” a rose by anyother name…….”
Scarlett – is a interesting name. It mite be out of fashion but, is better to have an interesting name than a common one.
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