It's All In A Name

My name is Edelmira Amuna. Edelmira means noble and famous and is a Spanish name. Amuna is my married name (my husband is Ghanaian) and the name means faithful in Hebrew. There are quite a few synagogues throughout the world with Amuna in their name. When I was a kid I hated my first name and swore that I would change it as soon as I became an adult. My mom used to make me correct people when they pronounced it incorrectly, which of course was an all day everyday affair. I finally put my foot down in high school and told her that I would not be correcting people anymore about my name. If it hurt her so much when she heard people mispronounce it, then she was so very welcomed to correct them. Pronunciation then and to this day, still does not make a tinker's darn bit of difference to me. Just spell my name right when you write me that check, alright. Once I was a grown-tailed woman, secure and confident, not trying to live up to anyone else's expectations, I learned to appreciate my unusual name and began to embrace it. My first name fits my personality and character because I am indeed a piece of work.

I have had a lot of fun with my name over the years (mostly at the expense of others). However, similarly to my mother I do still have a pet peeve about my name. If I take the time to spell my name for you and you still send me something or send something about me with my name spelled wrong I just may call you up just to give you the correct spelling of my name again. Now even though Edelmira is a Spanish name (it is the feminine version of the English name Elmer) it is still an unusual name among Spanish speaking people globally. So working in the public both in person and over the phone, I have received both positive and negative attention paid to my name. I started to use this sickeningly, sweet, cutesy-poo way of spelling my name to be a smart-alack and irritate difficult customers when they would demand that I spell it for them. E as in Edward, D as in David, E as in Edward again, L as in Love, M as in Mary, I as in Ida, R as in Robert and A as in Alice. See, I told you it was sickening. However, after a lady complained about how I spelled my name, and on another job a supervisor told me that the method that used to spell my name was unprofessional and that I would have to stop using it, once she left the company, I began use the E as in Edward, D as in David method all the time so it would sound more natural and less like I'm being a smart alack when I spelled it. More than once and every single time it was some racist, chauvinistic, Neanderthal who assumed that my first name was some pseudo-African name that my parents made up, and every single time I had to teach an unwanted history lesson to them about my noble and famous name. Notice I did not say unsolicited because when you open your big pie-hole to let ignorance come out in the form of the question "What kinda name is that" with a condescending attitude to boot, you are asking for me to school you. So it was on like popcorn. I told them in addition to the ethnic origin and meaning of the name, that my name was the feminine version of the first name of the presidential candidate who ran against Evita Peron's husband in Argentina many years ago. That put a real bee in the bonnets of these guys. Not only did they get an unwanted lecture, but nothing can tick off a prejudiced, sexist more than getting schooled by a Black woman who does not bother to mention the full names of the powerful men in her history tirade but blasts them with the first and last name of the president's more popular wife.

My maiden name is Brown (Scottish/Irish in origin) so that was common, and boring, so it got no play, but since I have been married, the questions about my last name have only increased. One customer during a call after I gave my obligatory first and last name and could not even get to the purpose of his call to the customer service department before he was all over my last name like a cheap suit. Why are people so dog-gone nosey? What did you say your last name was? Amuna (you heard me the first time). What does it mean? Faithful (mind your big eyed business so I can resolve the problem you are calling about). Are you Nigerian? No. What kind of name is that then? My husband's. Is he Nigerian? No. He is Ghanaian (read a geography book, my friend, there are many countries on the continent of Africa other than Nigeria).

I decided to re-post this because of the recent hoopla over our president Barack Hussein Obama's controversial name. So tell me, do you have a love-hate relationship with your name? Have you had trials and tribulations as the result the name your parents gave you or the name of the family you married into? Do you have an entertaining story about your name or the name of someone close to you? Please tell us all about it.