Today’s Daily Prompt: Write about your first name: Are you named after someone or something? Are there any stories or associations attached to it? If you had the choice, would you rename yourself?
I’m trying to figure out how to write this post without revealing my full name. (So much for preserving a semblance of privacy.)
My mom always made it known that she was not the source of my name. My paternal grandmother had “dictated” the name and she was powerless to do anything about it. Because it was a non-Christian name, too, (not of any saint), I was forced to take on “Maria” before the “Dinna” to make it “Catholicized”. (Such was the rule back in the Philippines in the 60s. My son, luckily was named “Salvador Angelo”, and while I am not aware of a Saint Salvatorre — ?– I guess “Angelo” did it for us.)
So Maria Dinna I became. But we’re getting ahead of the story.
“Dinna” was the name of choice because there was a popular singer at the time with this name in Manila. (So why are we surprised that there are a ton of Britney’s who are now in their teens?)
Except for the fact that many would mispell my name with one “N” (which a friend of mine has such a fascination for), or that they would later have a problem pronouncing it when I moved to the US (they couldn’t quite figure if they were to pronounce it as short “1” or a short “e”), I kind of grew into it and owned it. So no, I would not choose another name for myself.
I never really had any problems with the name personally, but my story about the name took on a twist when I got married.
It didn’t occur to me until before I was to take on my husband’s name that my grandmother’s wish had come to fruition. She not only got the “Dinna” from the popular singer then, but she got the full name of this lady I was named after with my married surname. Talk about a twist, and of wishes coming true.
Pinay New Yorker 