Minor Detail #10
I like my name.
It might sound trivial, but that’s why I’m writing about it as a minor detail.
The other day I was staring into space, wondering how different my life would be had my parents named me something else. Either something so common like John (no offense meant, especially to my best friend) or something atypical like Zenon. Either something pretentious like Dmitri (though I like this name) or something corny like Naeco (ocean spelled backwards).
Well, I have to say, they chose a fine name. My complete name is actually Aldo Gavril, but I rarely use my second name. A couple of people have asked me why, and it’s not because I don’t like it (because I do), but because I don’t want to have to spell it out all the time. I like that Aldo is four letters, and my last name, three letters. It’s said that the human brain can process only seven chunks of data at any single time (hence seven-digit phone numbers) so I like it that the combined letters of my first and last names total seven. Y’know, you always want people to remember your name (if not you).
I don’t mind helping you out
But I want you to remember my nameNot All Me, Alanis Morissette
I didn’t think much of my name until I became a student broadcaster in college, when I had to think of my airname (I ended up with Troy). My co-jocks asked me why I didn’t just stick with my name, which they thought would sound good on air. But that was probably because they pronounced it as all-dough, which was different from the al-dō I’d gotten used to in elementary and high school. Actually, I don’t mind how people say it, so long as all four letters are retained. I do dislike it when it’s shortened to Alds.
A classmate from graduate school kept calling me that. I didn’t get it — my name is already two syllables short — why must we still shorten it? And if we did have to shorten it, why not Al, y’know, the first syllable?
And then last year, somebody asked me what my complete name was, assuming that Aldo was just a nickname. She even made a guess, Is it Reynaldo? Arnaldo? Oh, I would have requested a change of name had my parents named me either of the two.
But my biggest pet peeve is misspelling my name. To avoid this, it’s become a habit of mine to spell out my name after telling someone. Still, people find it hard to get it right:
If I weren’t named Aldo (which is Italian), I would have preferred a Filipino name. I have a nephew called Ulan (which means rain in English), a name I’ve always loved. I asked the mother why she picked it and she said that she wanted something that was easy to spell — can’t argue with that!
Piece of trivia: my parents (actually it was just my dad) were supposed to name me Jiro. Thank god for the change of mind!
Another trivia: I did go by a nickname when I was a baby up until I was in early grade school. Oh but I’m too embarrassed to share it with the world.
