What's in a LOOOONNNGGG NAME?

I have a very long name so you could just imagine writing my name for the first time in prep school. It was for me a predicament writing my 20-letter name (first = 12, mi=1, last=7). I always end up cutting my last name into “Rami” instead of “Ramirez” because I already ran out of space. I always find myself complaining to Mama for giving me such a long name. If only I was given the chance to decide on my name, I would settle down for “Maria” or “Lou” for a first name. But, we have no choice of who our parents are nor can we decide on the names printed in our birth certificates. It's something that we have no control of.

In high school, I still encounter the same dilemma. During exams, while my classmates are already answering the tests, I’m still stuck writing my name. It’s just time consuming. Filling up forms is also a challenge especially if they have limited space for names.

Now fast forward to year 2003 where I became a mom and was responsible of giving my child a name. Well, it’s not just my responsibility; it was a shared effort between me and hubby. I totally forgot about the “long name” dilemma. Guess I was just too excited to name my newborn daughter. I gave her a name with 29 letters in it. That’s almost double the number of letters in my name. I’ve seen her activity sheets in school and her name is either blank or incomplete. Whenever I ask her to practice writing her name at home, she would often stop halfway and whine. Déjà vu, isn’t it?

Check out her activity sheets below which shows that she didn't finish writing her name. She got perfect scores though...





I used to think that giving your children such long names is tantamount to cruelty but I realized that having a long and nice name is better than having quite an amusing name. Our name is our identity and it is something that makes us unique from others. Our name is also one of the gifts our parents can give us and that no one can take it away. So, we just have to embrace it and love it.