Your name

Is it really yours? A baby is born and throughout all cultures that child is eventually given a name. Key word here is given. Therefore, do we own something that is given to us or do we just acquire it for a period time before we are given a new name? Everyone has different names in their life time. You may not legally change your name but you do take on a different identity in which you have a different name. Take for example, nicknames. We don’t usually make-up our own nicknames, but rather they are given to us. As stated by my professor in class, “nicknames are given…it is your choice to embrace them.”

This is ongoing challenge for a Hindu woman in the book Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee. Through the course of the book this character is referred to such names as Jyoti, Jasmine, Kali, Jase, Gold digger, Jane, Tornado and Jazzy. Her life started in India and after a tragic incident she wound up in America. These different names mark the different lives that she led. Each one is directly related to a period of time in her life and symbolizes new “births” she sustained.

So when she goes through these “births” or rather changing of her identity, is by her own choice? Is she making the decision to become someone else or does someone decided to make her someone else. (ie. Changes her name herself or is given a new name.) From my perspective from the book I believe she is given the names and they are not her own. Most of the names are the result of new men in her life. “Prakash for Jasmine, Taylor for Jase, Bud for Jane, Half-Face for Kali.” (pg 197) These names are given to her from these men and in turn she is re-born. To me her personality completely changes when her name changes. Perhaps she just hides her old personalities and adopts a new one to fit the new name she was given. In all she embraces these names and becomes a new identity.

However, at the end of the book I believe the “name giving” role finally is back in Jasmine’s control. I view these other name changes were as if she was trying on different clothes to see which she liked best. Some she wore because she had to in order to survive and others she wore because they were what was available to her at the time. But in the end, I believe she finally picks her own…she gives herself her name. “I realize I have already stopped thinking of myself as Jane.” (pg 240) The acceptance and embracement of all the names was a way for her to test out identities she wanted to be. She then, after seeing all the possibilities, chose the name that she felt truly fit her sole and who she wanted to be.

So we all have these different names…different identities. Here are a couple of mine that I can think of off the top of my head: Baby girl, Kari, Care-Bear, Princess, Benson’s sister, Bear, Queen B. They each relate to a different chapter in my life and they were all given to me. I have embraced them all and each is a different personality I have. Like Jasmine, I choose who I want to be. The beauty of a name is that it can change; we are never confined to just one. So, what name are giving yourself today?