Names in Society

Names in Society Though some may feel insecure about their name while another person flaunts how “unique” or how they love their name. A normal human being is named as a baby usually by the parent or a loved one, which means we don’t have control over our own names. I was named by my grandfather as a newborn. My mother told me “We never planned a specific name, your grandpa named you Ajmal because it sounded nice.” I wondered if they even knew what the definition of my name meant. As I got older, around the age of 13, I remember my mother telling me “Ajmal” means a handsome young man. I didn’t care much for the meaning of my name because I was young and just thought the meaning was “cool.” Some people take their names for granted because not all of us have a name society is familiar with, not all of us have a name that’s easy to pronounce, not all of us base our name as our identity. . I try to not let the downfalls of my name in America stop me from becoming successful because I want my name to characterize success, wealth, and family in the future. Our name makes us the person we are, our name is unique and most people take their names for granted, without realizing the true meaning behind it.

In the last paragraph I said “not all of us base our name as our identity” because there are people like Esperanza who feels her name should express herself. The essay “My Name” written by Sandra Cisneros- a Hispanic/white woman who dedicated her life into writing novels wrote a story about a girl named Esperanza. She reflects on how her name means “hope” in English, while in Spanish it means “too many letters” and “sadness.” Esperanza doesn’t like her name and is very self-conscious about it. She wants to change her name to “The X” or “Zeze” because she wants a name that truly expresses her. I feel if Esmeralda was still living in Mexico she would have no problem with her name because it would be a regular name like “Courtney” in America. Being an American