•4/28/2009 10:33:00 PM
Look. It's right there at the end of the word.
My name is important to me - my full name: Autumn Lee Hill. It flows so well, but it almost sounds made up. Like a stage name or a nom de plume. Take out the middle name and it sounds like a housing development or a housing complex, especially if you pluralize my last name.
When I was a child I had an aversion to my first name because I went through this phase where I wanted everything personalized, and my name wasn't always easy to find. I felt the frustration keenly. But I quickly got over it. It's not so rare that people mispronounce it or get confused, but rare enough that people pause and remark on.
Yes I do get a lot of dumb jokes, mostly from older men when I am waiting tables, and no one seems to be able to spell it even though it's a noun, but these are fairly minor irritants.
But I highly doubt losing my first name will ever be an issue. The part of my name most in jeopardy is my last name. It's a pretty great last name. Short, simple, easy to spell. Another noun. I have no intention of changing it. Ever.
I could spout out all these feminine ideals as my reasons, but I won't. While I do consider myself a feminist in many ways, that's not truly the reason I want to keep it. I don't even know if I could tell you the reasons why it is so important to me; it just is.
Part of it is that I have spent about a quarter of a century now trying to figure out who Autumn Lee Hill is. I still don't have a full handle on it, and I don't see a reason to try and change who I am and start the process over again just because I get married.
Now this might be a moot point altogether. I really have no strong inclinations toward marriage. I have nothing against marriage; most of my friends are all married and seem happy. I just can't really see Autumn getting married. It's just not me. Who knows? I know my parents hope I eat my words and tie the knot someday.
I once entered into a mock engagement with this guy I worked with. I honestly don't remember how it came about. One of the first things I asked him was whether or not he would have a problem with me keeping my name. When he said he was OK with it, I knew I'd found the perfect "fiancé".
My name is important to me - my full name: Autumn Lee Hill. It flows so well, but it almost sounds made up. Like a stage name or a nom de plume. Take out the middle name and it sounds like a housing development or a housing complex, especially if you pluralize my last name.
When I was a child I had an aversion to my first name because I went through this phase where I wanted everything personalized, and my name wasn't always easy to find. I felt the frustration keenly. But I quickly got over it. It's not so rare that people mispronounce it or get confused, but rare enough that people pause and remark on.
Yes I do get a lot of dumb jokes, mostly from older men when I am waiting tables, and no one seems to be able to spell it even though it's a noun, but these are fairly minor irritants.
But I highly doubt losing my first name will ever be an issue. The part of my name most in jeopardy is my last name. It's a pretty great last name. Short, simple, easy to spell. Another noun. I have no intention of changing it. Ever.
I could spout out all these feminine ideals as my reasons, but I won't. While I do consider myself a feminist in many ways, that's not truly the reason I want to keep it. I don't even know if I could tell you the reasons why it is so important to me; it just is.
Part of it is that I have spent about a quarter of a century now trying to figure out who Autumn Lee Hill is. I still don't have a full handle on it, and I don't see a reason to try and change who I am and start the process over again just because I get married.
Now this might be a moot point altogether. I really have no strong inclinations toward marriage. I have nothing against marriage; most of my friends are all married and seem happy. I just can't really see Autumn getting married. It's just not me. Who knows? I know my parents hope I eat my words and tie the knot someday.
I once entered into a mock engagement with this guy I worked with. I honestly don't remember how it came about. One of the first things I asked him was whether or not he would have a problem with me keeping my name. When he said he was OK with it, I knew I'd found the perfect "fiancé".
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2 comments:
I've been thinking about names quite a bit recently, too. Autumn is a beautiful name, and it's definitely unique. I went to primary school called Autumn-Faith, but she went by Autumn. Since it's in far more common usage in the UK it's funny to think that people can't get it right.
My name is pretty common, but when I was in California some people couldn't get a handle on it and called me Nicole or Nicollette, which was really bizarre. My surname is pretty unique though - it's Balkind. Sometimes I think about what it'd be like to change my surname, but I think if I married I'd keep my own too.
My first name is pretty common and not unique. Technically my first name is Rebecca, but the only people to call me that were my parents when I was in trouble, my crazy piano teacher, and my newspaper adviser. I've always been Becky, or Beckie, or Becca, or Beka. That's what I love about my first name, the fact that I can shorten it so many ways. I really want to do that for my future kids, but I find myself totally in love with the name Cora, which is entirely problematic.
As for my last name, Canovan, I really want to keep mine too. Some of the reasons are the feminist stuff, but mostly it's because the last name will die out in my extended family this generation otherwise. I've got a few like third cousins in Tennessee, but my only male cousin has a different last name.