John Hancock's What Did You Call Me

In her article “Be Specific,” Natalie Goldberg mentions the importance of being specific and giving things their proper name. By doing so we are able to connect with the world on a much deeper level,thus allowing us to become conscious of our surroundings and recognize the uniqueness these objects bring to this world. A name is a unique way of distinguishing people from one another. It is an important aspect of our individuality and who we are as people. It reveals who we are and where we come from.

“My Name” by Sandra Cisneros is a short excerpt from her book The House on Mango Street (1984). In this excerpt, Cisneros narrator is a girl named Esperanza, who is telling us that her name reminds her of a lot of negatives things, including who she inherited it from. Esperanza is trying to convince us that her name is a terrible name, which is built up of negativity and bad history. She state that she was named after her great-grandmother, who was born in the Chinese year of the horse, which they have in common, and is well known for her wild customs which lead to her feeling sad and lonely all her life. Esperanza specifies that her name sound beautiful among Spanish speakers, but to non-Spanish speakers her name is pronoun funny “as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” she says. She indicated that she would like to baptize herself under a new

Names are important to us, as we grow up, our names and our personalities become intertwined, they are how people identify us. So when we adopt a new name, even for a brief period of time, we allow ourselves to essentially become a new person: we can change what we didn’t like about our old selves, and assume new characteristics that we admire in others. For some, it is freeing to embrace a new name, but for others it is comforting to go back to their old one.

Most of our lives we have been called a certain name, whether it was given to us by birth or a nickname that friends have called us, but each of us has a meaning behind our names and I am going to talk about mine. My first name is Jacob, which is a very common boy’s name in this current period of time. I have known Dumont, my last name, to be a French surname because of my father’s side coming from France and Italy. Furthermore, both my first name and last name have meaning of some sort and that is what I will go over in my essay.

Most people have a story about how their parents decided on their name, especially those of us who have less common ones. Mine is fairly dry; my parents looked through a book of names and decided that “Maizie” was charming and sweet and would fit me well. My sister’s story, however, is slightly more intriguing. Cleo Arden Seidl, born on August 3rd of 2001, was named by me, Maizie Regan Seidl, when I was just two years and nine months old.

In summary, this reading passage talks about the relationship between one's name and his or her personal and cultural identities. Richard Crasta, the author of reading, introduces the relations between name and three types of personal and cultural identities: The cultural background, the wishes of parents, and the impressions even biases on personality. From my personal experiences, most of Crasta's contentions are plausible, yet some are subjective and obsolete.

This journal speaks on how names are seen as some form of “talent” as it is bestowed upon us on birth. This also has religious implications as some feel as their name is a gift talent given from god. Everyone's name within “their eyes were watching god mean something. An example of this would be Tea Cake. “John Callahan says that Tea Cake "revivifies" names” . The names also have a slightly overshadowed sense of racism, as in a way most of the names given to black people have a sort of dumbed down approach to them. Going back to the complete disregard of the “Afro-American” culture by the

Many would think that naming your child is a very big deal, since they are stuck with it for the rest of their life. Naming your child

Most people will agree that a name is a very important identity for a person. Beautiful names are usually given to lovely babies. Unpleasant names, however, are often criticized as bad images for people having them. Many children with “ugly” names face discrimination at school and are isolated or beaten by other children. People may wonder why parents can give that kind of “ugly” names to their children while other parents give their children nice and wonderful names. In fact, there are many factors that affect how parents will name their children, and the three main factors are culture, convenience, and socioeconomic status.

My family of five is blessed to have unique names that are quite different from the common “Sams” and “Johns” floating around the United States. However, it is not the tongue twister names that confuse people as they get acquainted with my family. When I share the names to others, I never fail to baffle people at the end of my list, Heonsu, Misug, Onyoo, Youngeun, and Sarah. “Sarah?” they exclaim. “Wait, what? Why is her name different?”. Every time this occurs, I am forced to explain in my practiced speech tone, “My family immigrated to the United States from South Korea when I was six. We all have Korean names, but my little sister was born here, so she has an American name.” Most people are satisfied with this answer before I can splurge with more information. They just leave, scratching the backs of their heads and continue with their mundane tasks. As a result, no one truly knows all the bizarre events that led to my little sister’s common name.

Let’s talk about the first name your baby gets, not the baby’s first name, but rather what we call our baby while it hasn’t even been born yet. When you find out you are pregnant and you have no idea what this marvelous being is going to be, how do you refer to ‘it?’ Who is this person, this part of you that will be somebody amazing, and somebody to love, and you don’t even know anything about him or her, or even if it’s a him or a her?

In The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, Ashima gives birth to a boy in an American hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Indian society, naming a baby is extremely important, and is practiced cautiously with the utmost patience: “It wasn’t unusual for years to pass before the right name, the best possible name, was determined” (25). Accordingly, Ashima and Ashoke turn to their ever-important families to determine their baby’s name: “As for a name, they have decided to let Ashima’s grandmother... do the honors” (25). The couple’s decision to let Ashima’s grandmother choose their baby’s name exhibits their devotion to both Indian culture as well as their family. Unfortunately for Ashima and Ashoke, things don’t go as planned: “They learn that in America, a baby cannot be released from the hospital without... a name” (27). Due to American culture, Ashima and Ashoke are forced to

““Names are not always what they seem.”” ― Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World”. Labels, tags, names and titles given to an individual do not truly define their true character. Society are the ones who give tags and labels to one failing to know the person’s identity. One must recognize that a name is just a form of differentiating a person, but not their uniqueness that comes along with them.

One night, my parent’s received an email titled, “You Are Having Three Baby Boys!” and soon began to research names. They wanted our names to sound official, as they believed that an official name would allow you to hold important positions. Every night, my mother scanned through baby books hoping to find names. When my mother went to St. Peter’s Hospital for her first ultrasound, she noticed that I was holding my two siblings up, making her believe that I was very strong. Unlike my siblings, my name had to sound official and strong. After another month of researching, my parents ended up with the name Alex. Alex might sound strong, but my parents chose this name as it represents Alexander The Great (King of Macedon and his strong willed actions

    Names are a terrible way to understand someone’s identity because names are regularly replicated. In my sixth grade class, there were three Mollys. We all had different backgrounds, different religious affiliations, and different personalities. If our names displayed who we are, wouldn’t our identities all be the same? Instead of staring at names and trying to understand their meaning, one should focus on a person’s personality, for personality depicts our identity. In fact, I have learned from experience to not infer one’s identity based on their name. For instance, in middle school, I was mutual friends with a girl named Kassidy. One Tuesday afternoon, my friend, Katy told me that Kassidy was going to sit with us at lunch that day. I shrugged my shoulders and replied with a casual “okay”. Before Kassidy walked in, I had a whole image of her in my mind: blonde hair, cute pastel colored clothes, and religious, all stereotypes that I thought a person with an innocent name like Kassidy