Hi my name is Arey.
This is what I used to say to everyone I met when I
first moved to Canada. Let’s get this out of the way first and then you will
see where I am going with this post.
My first name is Lev; in Russian it means Lion. I gave
myself a middle name when we moved from Lithuania to Israel, Aria. Aria means
Lion in Hebrew. When I moved to Canada I felt I wanted a unique name, a name
that no one else had.
So I gave my self the name Arey. Cool right? At the
time I was so adamant about my name being one of a kind. I wanted to feel
special, I didn’t want to be Lev. I felt Lev was too foreign and that my
friends would not understand it.
I was worried I wouldn’t be accepted.
Do you ever feel this way? Worried that other people
may judge you? That other
people might bully you?
It felt empowering giving myself a name of my choice.
I was obsessed with the name I gave myself because I
wanted people to remember who I was. I wanted people to hear my name and never
forget it. My ego was budding.
Why did I get so hung up on changing my name?
I wasn’t trying to be someone else, it wasn’t difficult
to spell. Lev meant something to me so I wanted to keep the meaning of the name
the same.
I did a search on why people change their names and
these are the top reasons my search yielded.
People change their names, according to Legal Zoom,
BBC and other bloggers: Divorce, transgender, children taking name of mother or
father, religious reasons, political statements, hard to spell or pronounce,
changing identity/personality, a dare, celebrity stature, superstition.
Some people change their name due to negative
association’s to a movie, or another person with the same name who committed a
crime.
What do you think about name changes?
I read not to long ago about Jay Z trademarking his
daughter’s name Blue Ivy. This is taking it to another height. Okay, your name
is unique, I am sure there are not a lot of Blue Ivy’s in the same class room,
or school. However, having that celebrity status some die hard fans would sure
wittingly name their offspring’s or pets the same.
So here we have people changing their names or people
copying other people’s names.
What’s wrong with the name we are given at birth? Isn’t
this who we really are? Will a name change make a difference in your life? Will
that make your life better or worse?
Difficult series of questions to answers. Questions
that should be asked prior to the name change. Only you know the answers to
these questions. Yes, you who wants your name changed.
When I changed my name to Arey, I was stunned to find
other people named similar to mine in Canada. I surely wasn’t happy about it. I
thought I was special, I thought I was unique. I thought I was one of a kind.
How can this be?
How much does your name matter to you? If you sat in
the same classroom with other Mark’s or Tom’s how would that make you feel?
Keith Ferrazi in his book Never Eat Alone explains
that building rapport with others, people who have commonalities tend to let
their guards down and are easily persuaded. People tend to be more likable when
commonalties such as same or similar names are present.
Studies have been conducted by Robert Rosenthal
and Lenore Jacobson in the 1960’s to prove that names have a
self-fulfilling prophecy. That children in school or society would perform
better based on what their name or association to their name is.
Gary Garwood of Tulen University later conducted
similar studies of names and personalities and came across similar founding’s,
as did Orlo Strunk from West Virginia Wesleyan college. Here is a quote from
Orlo
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