Every year, while the rest of the world goes crazy over March Madness, I log onto www.nameoftheyear.com and vote for the year's best names. Names in the running this year include Kobe Buffalomeat, Quindarius Monday, and my personal favorite: Le'Genius Wisdom Williams. These are names of real people - lawyers, professors, and various sports players. I find this contest hilarious and a lot of fun, but I also can't help but wonder what it would be like to be named something so utterly unique and crazy like Harmony Excellent... or Hunter Humann.
For many other people, their name is part of their identity, and affects them in many ways. Some with unconventional names run into all kinds of annoyances with people struggling to pronounce their names, or even with trying to get a job. Some people feel that their name somehow defines their identity, and struggle inwardly with the disconnect between their name and their personality. But personally, I don't feel like my name really means anything at all. Michelle is just what people call me, for convenience, to differentiate me from some other random person named some other random jumble of letters. Oftentimes I wish my name was more unique. I am rarely the only Michelle in my grade or in my school, and it can get slightly annoying. I wish that when I searched "Michelle Hung" on Google, my actual face shows up not some random Chinese woman. Sometimes I half-joke that my goal in life is to get my face in the first entry if you search up my name on Google. And the next step - be the first (legitimate) entry under my name in Wikipedia. But these things don't bother me enough for me to change my name, at least not now.
There isn't really a story behind my name, my parents just liked it. I don't really think my name fits me... but I don't really know what name would - in my opinion, a person can't/shouldn't (at least fully) be defined by a collection of letters their parents chose for them. Therefore, I have largely ignored my name, and it hasn't really affected me at all as far as I know. But I certainly understand and respect that some people care a lot about their names - like Gogol. Gogol's name makes him feel insecure, and he feels that people judge him after only hearing his foreign, funny-sounding name. Maybe if my name was stranger, I would feel the same way. But as it is, I can only observe others' experiences, and understand them, but not really experience the same feelings myself.
First of all, I want to thank you for telling us about that website. It is hilarious seeing all of the really unfortunate names that people have. I like how you have a completely different perspective on your name as Gogol. Gogol focuses on his name and dislikes its uniqueness where you don't care that much about your name, yet you would prefer something a little more unique.
ReplyDelete