What’s In A Name?
October 19 2023 4 min read
Spring. Phooftie. Jennie. JennJenn. Jennifer. J.
Just a few of the iterations of my name throughout my life.
What are yours?
What nicknames, what versions of your name have traveled with you in your life?
This week I’ve been leading my current October Fall Journal Session group through some pretty fun journal prompts.
I think a lot about this question of what ‘our truest selves’ entails and what it means to each of us individually and personally.
This led me to creating a prompt about our names.
It seemed like a simple prompt when I thought of it, but then as I played with it in my own journaling, (I test drive my journal prompts before I give them to my groups!) I realized there is so much more to our name.
It is a part of our identity. And every one of us has one.
When I was born, my oldest sister wanted to name me Spring. I was born in the spring so yeah, that seemed like a good name for a baby girl. But my Catholic parents would have nothing to do with a hippie dippie name like that and so, as my mother once told me, she chose ‘Jennifer’ after some women in a white dress moving through a field she saw on tv and apparently her name was Jennifer.
I have no idea if that story is true but I like it nonetheless.
As a child my nickname was Phooftie. I can’t tell you why but it seemed to fit and I answered to it, or the abbreviated version, “Phoof”.
Throughout my life I’ve been Jennifer, Jennie, Jenny, Jennuine (a friend from highschool called me that, which is why this blog is called Jennuine Thoughts) and in Thailand I am simply JennJenn.
What is in a name?
What do the names we are given, the names that morph over time as we grow and change, mean to us individually?
What and who does our name represent?
Is your name one you love? Do you relate to it? Does it feel like you?
A woman I know once shared her pain that her name is now attached to a pejorative slang for a personality in our society. I suggested she rewrite the story and claim a new story about her name and the meaning it holds for her.
When it comes to our names, which are given to us before we even have a say, claiming our own meaning and connection to our name, is our right.
Our names are part of our identity, our unique imprint in this world.
So yes, I think taking a bit of time to contemplate our names and decide on what feels meaningful, what feels like a part of ourselves we can claim and enjoy hearing from the mouths of others.
And for some, that can look like giving yourself a whole new name.
I recall meeting some women in my 20’s (in my true hippie times) who changed their names to Rainbow, Harmony, another changed her name from Bunny (yes that was her given name) to a made up combination of names she liked. I LOVED that these women had such courage and I remember wishing I had possessed such courage then because to tell you the truth, I wanted to reclaim my first name, Spring. But I didn’t. That stuff took confidence I didn’t have then!
Whether you change your name altogether, go back to an old version of your name you want to reclaim or modify it in some way, what I hope you will do is take some time to connect to the meaning of your name as you define it. Maybe you want to take this to your journal and linger in the questions for as long as you desire. As long as your soul, your essential true you, wants.
What does my name mean to me?
Is there a story I am holding about my name that I could rewrite?
Take the time you need to connect to your name because it’s a part of who you are and you, my friends, get to have the most important say in who you are.
Signing off from the name that is me now,
Jenn
~ The Fall Journal Sessions for Women ~
ONE MORE LEFT! Our last Fall Journal Session begins November 13th
“I just looked back at my writing from Day 1 and now we are on Day 5. I cannot believe all that I’ve written and how comforting it feels!” ~ Client
“I am realizing through these journal sessions that I just get to BE. I just get to be me. No striving, no doing, no pleasing. Just me with me and it feels so good.” ~ Client
“I love love love these journal workshops! I feel so inspired and it’s having an amazing positive impact on my days and my energy!” ~ Client
Ready for some inspiration? Come join us
Last Session - November 2023
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