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09 November 2007
At this moment in time only, if you could pick your own name, what would it be?
Fiona Waller. That's pronounced "FIIIIII-ona," with a loooong first syllable and a heap of Gulf Coast drawl. It's been my long-time back-up name, for when I become America's Premier Monster Truck Driver.
In a world where people will have Grandpa Brads and Grandma Krystyls, I'm happy to stick with my Biblically-inspired name.
But were I to adopt a new identity with my name, I'd be Klaus or Luc. And I'd be a student again, living in Berlin or Paris, totally fluent in ten languages, somehow making money by going to college forever, and I'd have a boyfriend who'd carry me on his shoulders while we were walking home from the store with a bottle or three of wine. And we'd be singing show-tunes, and passersby would join in. Maybe we'd all be doing parkour and rollerblading at the same time. And there'd be a soundtrack that matched whatever we were doing playing through the lampposts.
Amzi. My dad's and grandfather's name. Long A on the first syllable. I used to tease Dad about being annoyed with him for his not passing on to any of us (five) sons, even as a middle name.
Come to think of it, with a handle like "Amzi," I could dispense with using the last and middle names and just be a one-name phenom.
Hell yeah. I'll never have to wait more than two minutes for a taxi ever again now that I have legally changed my name to Guy Elvis Captain Beefcake PILEDRIVER.
Funny you should ask. I actually did pick my own name. When I was about 11, my father officially "adopted" me (long story), and I legally took his last name. And, so long as my last name was changing, I changed my first name along with it. At the time, I didn't like my name; I was getting teased a lot for it. Sometimes I think of changing it back.
I'm Lisa now, but I was born Leona, after my uncle Leo. My birth mother always called me Lee.
I have always thought my name (Tandy) has stood me in good stead--unusual, but not too much. I am named after one of my dad's ex-girlfriends; don't tell my mom.
I have also gone through: a "Kitty Carson" stage in 1st grade--My teacher let me sign all my papers that way--Ms Kitten when my dad was into CB radio, and more recently, I was "Molly" on a suicide hotline.
All-in-all, though, I would choose to be Tandy at this moment in time.
Me too! Or, from the same source, Oliver Boliver Butt. Similarly, my brother (who's a Doug, not a Dave) has occasionally used Bodkin Van Horn, which comes with lots ofextraresonance if you're from Montreal.
There was a time when I wanted to be referred to as a Brad, or an Adam, or something else generic like that. But not anymore; I'm more than happy with the name I've got.
I chose and legally changed my last name when I was 18. I have two first names (I answer to both equally) and like them a lot. I also like my middle name. When I was five, however, I begged my mom to call me Lily...
When my little sister was born, my parents let me name her. We've called her by her middle name since she was about three, and she's recently decided to drop her first name, take her middle name as her first, and invent a new middle name for herself. She's just begun a program in library studies (after abandoning a career in molecular biology) and is changing her middle name to "Encyclopedia".
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