What does your name mean to you?

Thursday, April 2 #3

What does your name mean to you? What does it mean to other people?

I used to hate my name, with so much fiery passion I not only threw a 4-hour long tantrum to get my parents to agree to call me Bian-na, I also started the family trend of the children changing their names and immediate compliance as the aftermath of the ordeal I caused. I believe my parents did not think of any repercussions of giving their newborn baby 5 different names, that grew to eight with a religious change, the discovery of my Khmer name and a joke that grew old in a week but was repeated for well over 10 years. Or maybe they thought that since I would have to learn them by first grade I would have become an excellent English student due to the 63 characters of Lady Bian, Khanavy (that's the closest I can get in English) Tanthary, Gabriela, Caroli, Omondi, Ochola. As I have grown though, I’ve come to be thankful for my name as I’m the only child in the family that escaped having a recycled name. 

 Tanthary is an ode to my grandmother, who passed away before we had a chance to meet. A simple way to keep her name alive, if anyone could pronounce it correctly. Bi-anne  Tan-Ta-Ha-ri Ca-ro-line...is usually how my teachers desperately try to say it, giving up at the ‘Caroline’ (thankfully my Christian name isn't registered anywhere- I might just drop that name) Half the time They’ll simply hand me the register and ask me to read it out myself, Which used to confuse me, as I thought Yes my name is pretty long, but it’s not that hard to pronounce. I genuinely thought my names were fairly simple, just a lot of them. Nonetheless, my names have great value to me, from easy party jokes of saying it out loud or death threats to anyone who tried to call me Lady Bian. I have learned to appreciate the things I was given even if they were mostly a challenge, they were given with good intention. Also, I’ll probably end up changing them when I move out.