Names

So this was something that came out while I was at the Inner Selves workshop organised by the British Council and MPH. It was a simple exercise; starting with a topic, simply write for 2 minutes. Don’t think, don’t analyse, just write. So the exercise in this round was simply to write about our names. I wrote a rather short piece because of the time limit (2 minutes), but I might expand it a bit here.

And yes, I used my real name for this.

Patricia. It’s an ordinary name. I’ve known 3 of them (3 Patricias I mean) and we all share the same thing; we’re chatty. My name says it’s to mean Noblewoman, but it would be better to say generous, full of life, and caring instead; the Patricia’s I’ve met in real life seemt o attest to these.

It’s a name I’ve felt served its purpose. Within me, there are a hundred other names I’d rather use and carry; Naoko the Priestess, Adraina the sorceress, even Angela the office worker. Patricia’s just the sort of cloth to cover them all, my tie to this reality, this life. The mundane world knows me as Patricia, and that is all it sees. It’s a very mundane name for a very mundane person living in a mundane world.

I suppose that is why we have exotic names instead.