Personal anecdote: "The story of my name"

My Name

In my country people usually have two first names and a surname, which is usually the father's name. My first Christian name is Christopher, though people I know often just call me Chris, which of course is short for Christopher. My second Christian name is Orton. This is a family name on my mother's side. I think her family originally came from Cork, in Ireland.

Anyway, the funny thing is that in my family everyone calls me Crick, because when we were small it was too difficult for my brothers and sisters to say Christopher. Some close friends from school still use my nickname "Charlie", which in fact was my father's nickname too when he was at school. I don't know where he got that nickname because his real name's George.

So, people use four different names for me. I'd never consider changing my name because that would just make things even more confusing. I know one person who changed her name. She changed it because she believes names have a power over people and she wanted a name that suited her personality better. I still think of her, though, as she was called when we first met.

I have two children and neither of them are named after other people in the family. We just chose names my wife and I both liked, trying to avoid names that are very common nowadays, or names of other people we know. We called them Harriet and Hugo.