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  • Writer's pictureMia S

Name, Game, and Fame

Today's Holidays: Get a Different Name Day, Radio Day, Madly in Love With Me Day, National Tortellini Day

Website of the Day: https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/toss-in-tortellini-recipes/view-all/

Fact of the Day: If you want to change your name, you aren't allowed to name yourself after a celebrity.


 

Apparently my name was supposed to be Chloe. My parents had it all planned out- actually they wanted to be surprised about whether I would be a boy or girl, so I guess it wasn’t entirely planned out. If I was a boy, my name was going to be Paul Jr., and they would call me "PJ", after my dad. My mom decorated my room all yellow, since yellow’s supposed to be considered a “gender-neutral” color, but once I was born and she found out I was a girl, she repainted the walls and returned every trace of yellow back to Babies "R" Us in place of pink. Anyway, a few days before I was born, my parents decided to change my name to Liliana, and they would call me "Lily". This would have ended up being quite an issue, as my cat's name is Lily, although I think if my mom said, "Lily, stop getting fur all over the couch" or "No, Lily it's not time for food yet, stop begging", I would know which "Lily" she was talking to. And even though my cat's name is Lily, we all call her something different: I call her "Bear", my brother, Jake, calls her "Phil" (which I don't approve of), and my mom mixes it up from "Furball" to "Lard" (my cat is very fat) to sometimes just "Lily".


But this wasn't the end of the name change game, because my name is neither Chloe nor Liliana. My mom always loved the name Mia. Apparently, there was this girl in her high school art class named Mia. Mia was a senior when my mom was a freshman, and she had blonde hair and bright, blue eyes. My mom loved how short and sweet the name sounded, and she also thought that the senior girl was really cool (obviously, she was a senior) and beautiful. And so, just like that, in a game-time decision, my name went from Liliana to Mia. I don't know the specifics- when exactly my parents decided to change my name, what reminded my mom of the name Mia, nor why the name resonated with my parents so much so that they ended up naming me Mia. However, I do know that my middle name, Lisbeth, was my great-great grandma's name, and Mia means "mine" in Spanish, which is maybe why I hated sharing when I was little.


Me (with my shades, watch, and ring) Thinking I'm Too Cool to Share

Me: Okay, fine I'll share some of my toys with Jake- but the Care Bears are off limits!

Me: Sharing is Caring! Jake: Kindergarten doesn't know what's coming. Sean: I hate taking pictures.

I remember when I was younger and my parents first told me that I was going to be named Chloe originally, I was quite sad, because this was around the time I was obsessed with Care Bears, and in the Care Bear movie, the bears and the boy all jump and play on puffy clouds. I thought Chloe sounded an awful lot like clouds, and I guess I just had this image in my head of Chloe being able to jump and play on the clouds in the sky like they all did in the movie. I have outgrown the Care Bear stage, and I now realize that Chloe really doesnt sounds like clouds, but I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been like as a Chloe, or even as Liliana, as I guess I was closer to being named Liliana than Chloe.


Would I act different? Would I be more or less confident? Would I be more or less intelligent? Would I still like the color pink or would I prefer blue? Would I still love the Cheesecake Factory or would I prefer a subpar restaurant? Would mashed potatoes be my favorite food? Would I have went to Peddie? Would I go to Princeton? Would I have the same friends? It’s weird to think about, but in some ways I imagine a entirely different life for myself as Chloe. Sure, maybe you could argue that our character and personality aren’t based upon our name, but there is some aspect of identity in regards to a name. 


 

At the top of every paper since kindergarten we write our names. Our names are often among the first sounds we recognize and can respond to, as well as the first word we learn to write. Our names appear on all of our certificates and awards and diplomas. We introduce ourselves to new people, to an audience, or to a group by beginning with our name. There is some fundamental role in our name, and therefore, in the specificity of our name, that influences our lives. Names create some emotional attachment, both between us and our name as well as between others and our name. And even if we don’t love our name or feel as if we don’t connect with it, our name is automatically a part of us: something that we have no say in, that we did not choose, and yet it impacts our lives and stays with us forever. 


Think about how you feel when someone pronounces your name wrong. When someone reads my name as “Maya” instead of Mia, I feel a sudden urge to correct them, and make sure that they know how my name is properly pronounced. This need to defend and clarify our name demonstrates our sense of identity that we associate with a name. Furthermore, a common ice breaker is to tell “the story of how you got your name”. I’ve had to do this countless times: in Spanish class, in my orientation groups, and at various club meetings. The root of this question lies in the presumption that there is always some interesting story behind a name. A name is assumed to have importance and meaning, and while some names do, others are simply a result of parents liking how the name sounds. However, this common question illustrates the correlation between name and meaning.


We can even consider celebrities, fame, and legacy. When we think about our legacy, we often say that we "want people to remember the name ____". Important figures in history and people with notable accomplishments, either in music, acting, writing, politics, or academia, are all remembered by their name. Yes, we also remember what, specifically, they contributed, but we recognize them by their name and associate their achievements with their name. Who would Lady Gaga be without the name "Lady Gaga"- or Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and the Kardashians- these names are iconic. When we hear them, thoughts and opinions immediately come to mind, and just by hearing the name, we know of the weight behind it. Fame also brings up this interesting idea of universality and commonality. When anyone who lives in the U.S., or even beyond, hears the name George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, he/she automatically knows the reference. Names such as these are unifying principles; they unite large groups of people around a commonality. And if we apply this, on a smaller scale, to our own, individual lives, our name is a unifying principle among the people we associate with: family, friends, peers, acquaintances, professors, and coaches. Our name is our identity tag that, when people hear it, associate particular feelings, emotions, and thoughts with us. In this sense, names unify not only communities on a large scale, such as the United States, but the smaller communities in our lives.  


 

While it would have been really cool to jump on the clouds like the Care Bears do, I actually love my name. Though Mia has become more common, I personally don’t know many other Mia’s, and so I like it’s uniqueness. I also appreciate its brevity, especially when I was taking AP exams and the ACT/SAT, because I didn’t have to fill in nearly as many bubbles as everyone else- and filling in those bubbles really tires out your hand. I identify with the name Mia, because it has been a part of me from the very beginning- a part of my personal history. And yet it exists in the past, present, and future all at once.


I know this technically should have been a post about changing names, as today is Get a Different Name Day, but somehow it turned into the opposite! A name is an integral element of who we are and who we are going to be, whether these two are the same or different, so love your name, embrace it, remind yourself of why it is so great, and change it if need be to feel that sense of connection! 


Happy Get a Different Name Day! How did you celebrate? Comment below or send in a picture to nationalholidaymovement@gmail.com or @officialoneholiday on Insta! #Name #Connect #Celebrate #BeHappy #GetaDifferentNameDay

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