A Year of Blogging: February 13, 2011

Today is 'Get a Different Name' day. There have been times I've longed for a different name. As a child, I got so tired of having to pronounce my last name for people. Or to spell it. I wished for a name as easy as Smith or Jones. I could tell when someone was trying to pronounce my name, and stumbling over that task. This happened on the first day of school every year. As the teacher goes through the alphabetical list of students in the class, when he got to Jason (who came just before me in the alphabet from Kindergarten through 12th grade), and then it was 'Amy...... (long pause as they try to figure out my name). I raised my hand and said 'Premo'. It was easier than having them butcher my name. Of course, it is spelled Primeau, but pronounced Premo. Long e. Long o. I didn't understand why my Grandfather and Dad got so upset if we went to a restaurant and they mispronounced our name. Who cares how strangers pronounce our name? As I got older, and realized the name is part of me, I understood their feelings a lot better. Especially after my divorce, when I took back my maiden name. It is something I am proud of. I still bristle at people mispronouncing it, and in the office, I usually just tell clients to call me Amy. I'm the only Amy in the office, so there's no need to use my last name. I love it when I find people who can pronounce my name. I've found they are usually either people with some knowledge of the French language, Canadian, or hockey fans. Yes, hockey fans. There was a hockey player Keith Primeau. He was a great player. I know when someone is a hockey fan when they see my last name and ask 'Any relation to Keith Primeau?'. They are of course shocked when I reply 'Yes. He's my cousin.' I give them a couple of seconds to absorb this and then I tell them 'but my cousin isn't the hockey player.' As much as my last name has vexed me over 34 years; it is my first name that I have most wished could be changed. For the better part of my life, I have hated my first name. I always thought Elizabeth (my middle name) would have been much better as a first name. Amy is so dull, so boring, so short. It's very methodical: the first letter of the alphabet, one from the middle, and one from the end. A tall pointy letter, a humped round letter, and one that goes below the lines. Added to my disappointment is there aren't many ways to shorten it, as readers of my blogs know. Some people tried to call me Ames (a discount department store). Most people who tried that found themselves on the other side of my right hook. (My roommate in college was Hilary. I know at least one person called us Ames & Hills. Both of us took offense!) Amy was also one of the most popular names for girls in the 1970s, so there are a lot of us. Whenever I went to a souvenir store or any place where they had personalized items, Amy was usually sold out. In high school, I tried to change my name. I changed it to Aimee for a while. It was so much prettier to write than Amy. And so French! Oh la la. I'm kidding. But no one else in school spelled their name Aimee. I was different. For my pen name, I used A. Elizabeth. I always thought that had a much nicer ring to it. I would change my name to A. Elizabeth and people could call me Liz. Not Beth- I have a cousin Beth. But we didn't have a Liz. When I went to college, I stopped trying to change my name. At some point, my mother told me how she chose Amy as my name. She always like Little Women, and she liked the name Amy. I felt better knowing I had a literary based name, and it wasn't chosen just because it was popular. Little Women has been one of my favorite stories since the first time I read it, in grade school. I have come to accept my name, and even to like it a little. Although, if we were using Little Women as the basis for my name; Meg would have been a far better choice.