What’s in a name?
As a parent, choosing names for your children can be a difficult thing, especially when you don’t have any idea what type of personality they are going to have. My now 15-year-old son Alec was a Jake for eight and a half months until I freaked out because I knew many of my friends were having boys and all naming their sons Jake. All parents go through the “name game.” How about….Julie? No, I knew a Julie is school that stole my lunch when I was in 3rd grade. Then there’s the game where you say the name out loud and envision your child as the president of the United States with a name like Chip. No, not strong enough. So this is where we, as parents, sit and contemplate the perfect name for our offspring.
As a child grows up, they have the opportunity to change their names or use a different form of their given name. Elizabeths can choose Liz, Lizzy or even Beth. But some people opt for a complete name change. I recently had lunch with local radio host of Wake up Columbia on 93.9 the Eagle, Tom Bradley. During the conversation over a salad I learned the guy I’ve known for a while now was not Tom Bradley.
My reaction was an instant “WHAT?” said in shock. The person I was sitting across the table from was not the person I thought. Well yes, he’s “Tom Bradley” and by that name I know a guy that loves supporting local business and his community, an entrepreneur, married to Dynamite Deb (how about that for a name? Yes, she is dynamite) and is a Republican with a sparkling personality…those two can go together 🙂
Who is Tom Diestel? I don’t know that person. If I was meeting Tom for the first time, I’m completely OK with his last name being Diestel but learning that the guy I’ve know for years now has a different name? No OK. Well, that just changed everything for me and became the inspiration for this blog.
Upon some continued thought on this subject, I was getting my hair cut and introduced to a new employee at the salon. Her name was Leigh. Having a “getting to know you question” for her, she didn’t respond to her name after several attempts. My hair stylist said, “Well, her first name is Jen and because we already have a Jen here, we thought it might be confusing. So we call her by her middle name, Leigh. She’s probably just not used to it.”
So now intrigue set in, and I began to ask her a myriad of questions about what she thought of changing her name. “Well, I’ve been Jen all my life, so changing my name has definitely been hard,” she said. “But I’m having lots of fun with it.”
So I began thinking…If I changed my name and was known by a completely different identity, what would that be? With some thought and a Google search, I came up with my new name: Alex D’Angelo. Alex because its short for Alexandria and every person I know that has some form of the name Alexandria are awesome. Who doesn’t want to be amazing, right? D’Angelo because it’s my mother’s maiden name, and I think family and tradition are important.
So here is my challenge to you: Don’t second guess yourself by saying, “I like my name, I like who I am.” It’s more for the fun of it! Get your partner, friends or workers to join in and figure out exactly what you would change your name to if given the chance.
XOXO,
Alex D’Angelo aka Angie Huhman