What's in a name? According to dictionary.com, a name is "awordoracombinationofwordsbywhichaperson,place,orthing, abodyorclass,oranyobjectofthoughtisdesignated,called,or known." So a name is basically just a way to distinguish all 7 billion of us on this Earth. In the United States and Western Europe, the names considered "normal" or "common" are much different than those from Asia or Africa, for example. For those growing up with an ethnic name, life could be a lot harder than you may expect.

I have a distinctly ethnic name and I love it. Knowing the background, meaning and culture behind my name makes it even more special. However, I didn't always love my ''abnormal'' name. When I was younger, I had a love-hate relationship with my name. Since nobody could pronounce it correctly, I changed the pronunciation to help everyone say it and make it sound "more white." However, even with the slight change in my name, I never fully felt like I fit in. Roll call was always a nightmare for me. The teacher would go down the list easily and once they got to my name it became silent. They would struggle to say my name eventually getting a response from me or my classmates with the correct pronunciation. Occasionally a teacher would be really rude and not even try to say my name. They would refuse to listen to the correct way to say it and just go with whatever they wanted to call me. I'd always hear, "yeah, that's too hard. I'm not even going to try," "wow, what a name" or "yeah, I can't say that, let's just move on before I butcher it." Although I knew most of the time they weren't trying to be rude, I still felt out of place and hurt. I wanted to have a name that everyone could pronounce and could easily recognize. Deep down, I loved my name so much. I loved that it meant something so incredible, it was attached to a deep history and culture and it meant something extremely special to my family. But, as the years went by, I hated my name less and less. I eventually met people that loved and embraced my name and taught me that it's okay to be different. In fact, that it was cool to have an ethnic name. They taught me to love my identity and to own it because that was so important to have. They would tell me not to use a "white name" when I went out and told me to brush off the "haters."

I could probably write a novel on all the different ways my name has been pronounced, but I wouldn't change my name for anything. Even though I still struggle to fit in, I know now that my name is who I am. It's amazing to be the only one with my name where I go. It's so cool to see everyone's reactions when I pronounce it correctly or tell them the meaning behind it. I love saying my name and introducing myself, because now I'm confident in my name, I own it. Yeah, there are millions of people out there with the same name but each one of us went through something different, making our name unique to ourselves. Through the years, I have learned to love and embrace my name. Now If you ask me for my name, I will gladly tell you and be proud of it.