many mundane moments

Valarie, valar-i, valara ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

topic: My parents named me __________ because . . . Tell us about your name. Do you like it or dislike it? Would you name yourself something else? Does your name fit you? Share all your thoughts and feelings on your name.

I'm pretty sure it was just a name they liked and there's no family or sentimental tie. The big question is why did they spell it like they did? I remember my mom telling me that they didn't know how to spell it and it was a group effort with the nurse. Valarie looked/sounded the best to them, so that was how they went with it. I could almost quote Shelah about the difficulties in growing up with an unusual spelling of a name paired with a Czech last name. Almost, as my last name didn't mean greasy.

Do I like my name? eh. I don't dislike the name itself, but there are a lot of things I didn't like about being named Valarie. It's almost always misspelled. Plus, I tend to mumble so I have to repeat myself a lot. I had a friend through middle and high school whose whole family called me Laow because that's what she thought I said the first time I called her house. Because of that, I never say "Val". Contrary to poular belief, I don't mind being called Val. However, I always introduce myself with my whole name.

Also, I almost never write Val. That's related to never introducing myself as such, plus I don't think the shortened version flows with my last name (married or maiden). I refrain from using Val myself so that people don't think I go by it and pair it with my last name- even though it is what I am generally called and people who I meet typically start using it within about 3 minutes of being introduced.

One last pet peeve about my name- people who skip the second a and say it "Valrie"- my dear, sweet grandmother included. Yeah, you're just skipping one letter, but it completely changes the sound of the name. It's most often people from her generation who say it that way. Maybe it's related to growing up during the depression and they were taught to conserve everything they could. It seems they've extended that thinking to the number of syllables in my name.

So, I'm pretty anal about my name, but would I change it? Not likely, because the issues I have would probably still be there no matter what I was called. I'm quite rigid about the spelling and pronunciation of my name, but I think those are a matter of respect that should be extended to everyone. That's probably a result of my maiden name, which I'll bet I could spell before I could say it. I'm often misheard, but that's more because I speak quickly and sloppily. People tend to forget my name, but that's likely related more to my personality than the actual name.

At my last job, I was called Julie for a few months. The near senile PR director mistakenly called me that in an article about the success of their internship program. He also mistakenly said that I already had my degree and that my job title was a level higher than I really was. I called my director and asked to be compensated based on those two things. He told me that when I changed my name to Julie that he would give me a raise and promotion. I had our facilities director make me a new name plate for my office door before his next visit. He didn't go for it, but the name stuck for awhile.

note: I called my mom to confirm the reasoning and spelling. She said "because Valarie was... er is, IS a beautiful name. It is a beautiful name." I think she's still trying to convice herself.

posted by Valarie @ 2:28 PM