Name Stories
ADELE
My middle name was a gift from my grandmother who shared the same middle name. It seemed to fit beautifully with Jennifer. Of course, my mother was creative with it when she needed my attention. "JenAdele." Snap, I'd come to attention immediately. Growing up, it was unusual, unique. Today, it has become a well-known name because of the popularity of the singer Adele.
My middle name was a gift from my grandmother who shared the same middle name. It seemed to fit beautifully with Jennifer. Of course, my mother was creative with it when she needed my attention. "JenAdele." Snap, I'd come to attention immediately. Growing up, it was unusual, unique. Today, it has become a well-known name because of the popularity of the singer Adele.
"My Name" Vignettefrom The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.
It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female--but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong. My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it. And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window. At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as my sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza. I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do. |
Write your own name vignette following the guide below:
Part 1
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Pet Names
Harley
Harley was 6-weeks-old when he came to us. We had been thinking about getting a Yorkie. A friend of ours worked at an emergency animal clinic, and she texted a picture of this little lost soul behind the bars of a cage. She even offered to bring this little bundle of energy to the house for us to see. It took seconds to fall in love with the precious boy. $300.00 later, we were exiting the pet store with loads of supplies for our new puppy. On the way to the pet shop, our son looked over and saw a cushion on the seat in the truck. It happened to have the Harley Davidson logo on it. Hence, our son actually named Harley for us. |
Chota
My husband and I were married at Echota Resort in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Shortly after our wedding, we added a yellow Labrador Retriever to our family. We wrestled with a name for quite a while but settled on Chota (sounds like Koda) for our precious three-month old puppy. He was a sweet-natured pooch with chocolate eyes. He loved playing fetch with tennis balls, and he absolutely love water. When visiting our family's lot along the river, he was always the first to jump in. Our beloved Chota lived to be 14-years-old, and we continue to miss him to this day. |