Names and Blessings

Segullah recently had a couple of posts that prompted me to comment - I always read them through google's Reader, so I only get the comments when I click through to the main site.


After reading "On Names", I commented about how mum's occupation as a teacher affected our names. We couldn't have any name that reminded her of students. I was also named for one of my mum's mission companions with my middle name "Blossom". I often think about names and the power they have to shape us as people. I don't think everyone has a name foreordained, much as I don't believe in soulmates - I value agency too highly to believe in fate.


I do believe, though, that our names affect things that we would otherwise experience differently. We moved a lot and my experience of moving was affected by the fact that my new teachers could never pronounce my name from the roll and my new classmates took a while to say it properly. It separated me from my new peers, and added to my high reading level, religion and family size made me 'different' on top of being new.


I've always seen it as a blessing, and being so obviously different allowed me the space to be who I wanted rather than feeling pressure to conform.