I choose...

[ailbhe]

I choose my name, my label for Me, my own word that designates Myself. I choose Ailbhe. I choose this because it was given to me in love, because it taught me many things - to defend the things I love, to differentiate between ignorance, wilful ignorance, and stupidity, and, most of all, to laugh at myself.

I choose Ailbhe as my name. I don't see myself ever changing this. It's a name with a history. It's mine.

I don't choose a so-called "title". I don't want one. Mister, Miss, Mistress, Ms or otherwise; until we have Comrade or Person or Citoyen or Alivething as a title, I want none of it. Perhaps I'll get a PhD so that I can be Dr. Perhaps I'll start using M.

I don't choose a surname. When I need to use one, I will use the one I have always used. I don't want another one; I don't feel that a name I borrow from someone else will ever really become mine, especially a name whose history I know almost nothing about. I have considered choosing my mother's maiden name as a surname, because that has a history I know a little about (only back to 1847 with corroborative evidence) or my grandmother's maiden name, about which I know very little, but I do know a story about a man with 60 pounds and a white horse. Or my great-grandmother's maiden name; she met her husband in London, and I have often visited the church where they married.

I choose Ailbhe. I know that the Post Office, among other people, are intensely uncomfortable with the thought of someone without a surname, and so I'm not going to change my name legally to Ailbhe. And I'll keep using Ms on drop-down lists.

But I wanted to say, rather loudly, that my name is Ailbhe.

Comments

Gimme an "A"!

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Nice post. :-)

Re: Gimme an "A"!

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

No can do. I need both of mine, otherwise I end up with the same name as my eldest brother...

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that this is SUCH a cool post. Go you!

[wandra.livejournal.com]

But I wanted to say, rather loudly, that my name is Ailbhe.

Loud and clear. This is lovely :-)

I'd like to hear the story about the man with 60 pounds and a white horse, if you felt like telling it some time.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

Nice to meet you!

Cheers,
MikZ. (a.k.a. Michael Herman Scheper II, when I'm being really formal.)

[artela.livejournal.com]

Some friends I used to work with who got married decided that neither of them were that attached to their previous surnames and decided between themselves which surname they would both like to use from the date of their marriage. Unusual, but it worked for them.