Saturday, January 06, 2007

Studio Friday: Changing Names

This week's topic for Friday January 5th suggested by Susan: CHANGING NAMES...

"I've been reading Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit and here's an idea from her book - " the ancient masters of Japanese art were allowed to change their name once in their lifetime. They had to be very selective about the moment in their career when they did so. They would stick with their given name until they felt they had become the artist they aspired to; at that point, they were allowed to change their name. For the rest of their life, they would work under the new name at the height of their powers." So let's presume we are at the height of our careers - what name would you choose and why? "
~ Susan

This is interesting. I am currently reading this book and I just finished this section. (It's a good book, by the way.) When my mom named me, she wanted me to have a different name. As a kid, though, I hated my name. It didn't help that at the start of school every year, I was always on the boys list instead of the girls list. My middle name just added to the confusion. I would spend countless hours thinking up new and "better" names. One of those names was Gloria. In my mind, I was Gloria for about a year. It seemed the complete opposite of my given name. But as time went on, I started to like my name. I liked the fact that it was different. I didn't mind the gender confusion. Now my name seems like a part of who I am, or maybe I am who I am because of my name. At one time I volunteered on a crisis line and I chose an alternate name for privacy reasons. It never did feel like it fit me. So while I can fully understand why someone would want to change their name, I'm happy with mine now.

Read more Studio Friday here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like the name Sydney too. I can identify with the male/female confusion thing as my first name was Dale until I switched to using my middle name! It's good to be happy with your name...I asked all 3 of my children if they wanted to change their names as teenagers and none of them did! It was surprising to me because I'd lived most of life wanting a different name!

Anonymous said...

I can see the confusion Sydney would pose as a child but I love that name. I wanted to name my youngest that but...well...it didn't happen. It's good to try new ones on - sometimes they fit and sometimes they don't! thanks for playing with 'my topic'