My Name: The Freedom and Constrictions

         My name is Alex.  Pretty common.  But of course when I was born no one even considered asking me.  So here I am, stuck with a petty common name.  My real name isn’t even Alex. It’s John.  Even more common.  My uncle and his dad and his dad and a lot more dads were named John.  My last name is Vig.  Not very powerful, but at least it’s unique.  It’s like having two plain yellow pencils, my first and middle name, and then a fancy vibrant blue shaded mechanical pencil, my last name.

            I guess I would like Alex more if it were less popular, but I know so many kids named Alex.  I don’t have any nicknames either.  My name is just there like another boring yellow pencil in a stack of others.

            My middle name is actually Alexander so Alex is a kind of nickname derived from my middle name.  I don’t have a real nickname.  I’m just Alex.

There are certain advantages to having a common name.  People don’t mispronounce it, and people also don’t take you as abnormal.  But I guess I kind of get the advantages of both.

            My dad grew up in India but my last name is not a word in Hindi.  My real first name, John, doesn’t mean anything either.  But there were some famous people named Alex.  The two most think of are Alexander Hamilton and Alexander the Great.  I had a great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather who was the Prince of Spain.  My name has nothing to do with him however.

My mother named me John Alexander Vig because the name John has been in her family for a long time.  But she didn’t want me to be called that so she gave me a middle name, Alexander, so people could call me Alex.  Overall I like my name, but it’s a little common.

            I wish I could have a name like Rand Chrestomanci.  It’s powerful, long and original.  It’s something that I could grow into, another identity.  Not that I think a name restricts one, but if a name fits, people will remember it and you.