Who Are Your People? The story your name tells.

Social media can be a triggering space. Today, it’s my turn. One of the trending topics is something that has irritated me for ages: Names. More specifically, ethnic minorities being asked to change theirs or feeling pressure to ‘Westernize’ them.

Professionally this trend has deep socio-economic implications. But in social settings? It’s just plain lazy. So you can understand my reaction when I ran into someone who had dealt with that stigma her entire life. It was a birthday party. I didn’t know everyone there or which parents belonged to which adorable bunches of fast-moving chaotic toddlers. So when I had a chance to have a chat with one lady, the first thing she did was give me her nickname or the name most people called her by ‘because they say my full name is difficult to pronounce’.

Then Warsan Shire’s words bubbled up in my consciousness, first like a whisper in an echo chamber and finally like a booming, stern command:

― Warsan Shire

Nicknames bestowed among longtime friends or family over funny occurrences; a preferred name to be called by because your given name doesn’t feel like you anymore (or maybe never did); choosing one of your other given names and asking to be called by that for whatever reason are entirely separate lines of discourse.

Whether you agree with Warsan Shire’s position, or you are prone to abbreviate your name. Maybe you’ve never felt empowered to do any different. For the sake of those who will come after you, with the cultural lines being blurred more and more: force people to get your name right the first time. Do not make it or you smaller to enable someone else’s laziness. You are worth the correct pronunciation of every syllable, every time.

Signed

Katrina “Katalina” Marshall 😉

*Her name was Anastasia.

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