Call Me Anytime There are three of me, in town, apparently. I know for sure because when I go to vote I am asked which one I am. There is even another with the same second name as mine, just spelled slightly differently. I have been discovering bits and pieces about these ' other mes' as I go about my business, my daily life. When I go to the optometrist, beauty salon, hairdresser, doctor or dentist the other ' mes' have been before or coming after me, the receptionist often gets us mixed up, and reveals some details about them such as their address or age.
One of 'us' has the moniker 'Dr' , she works at the university. One is s friend of a friend on Facebook. Another with my name keeps popping up on LinkedIn as a suggestion for me to link with. At work this week I discovered there is another 'me' in Brisbane. When talking to a new group of year eights while they waited for their teacher outside the classroom at the end of lunchtime a little year eighter pointed to my name badge and told me her grandmother had the same name as me. I asked the her where she lived, she told me in Brisbane. I told her I was born in Ipswich and that perhaps we were related. The Universal Law of Attraction was at work again in my life. Drawing people and experiences into my life that I have something in common with.
I thought my name was pretty unique, but you only have to " Google it" to see how many other "mes" or " yous" there are out there in the enternet. My first name, Robyn, is a family name, the female version of a name that is given to the female offspring in my Mother 's family, the males were given the name, Robert. My son 's middle name is Robert, continuing the tradition with my offspring. I have a female cousin also named, Robyn. I know that there are many relatives around the country with Robyn or Robert as their moniker.
When my ex husband and I travelled overseas before we had our children I did a bit of searching of my Mother's family tree in Scotland. I traced our family back to Kirkintilloch near Glasgow. I spent many hours in the local library going through the census documents, great big old hard cover books that contained handwritten details of the time. Ink written entries that had been written a few hundred years before. I walked through the local cemetery looking at and reading the gravestones, making the connections of who was who. Looking at the war memorial to read the names of all the Robert Somervilles that had lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.
I searched through the local telephone book naively thinking that I might find a relative or two to contact. Somerville in that part of Scotland is a s common as Smith is in our part of the world. Who would have thought? I took down lots of notes and brought these back to Australia to share with my Mother and my Uncle , her brother, whose middle name by the way was Robert. He was the family story teller, the one who had an intense interest in all things family. The one who encouraged me to do the searching and finding. He would always have little snippets of information from other relatives from the Somerville clan to help put the jigsaw together. It is seven years since Uncle Les passed away and I am still trying to connect all the dots.
Growing up I didn't really like my name, it was a unisex name and I wanted one that was more 'girly' and 'pretty'. Mine seemed to be practical and strong, people often spelled it incorrectly and commented on the fact that it was also a boy's name. At one time after my separation I told my friends I was going to change my name. I announced this at a large group gathering of my girlfriends and the reaction was .... let me say interesting! Everyone had an opinion about names and what they should be. Just like when you name a child or suggest names that you are thinking of. Friends and family have very strong opinions about names. I remember sitting back as the conversation amongst my friends took over, as they suggested what name suited me and what didn't. It was a bit of a reality check and I didn't go ahead officially with the name change. I did tell people that I had changed my name and did go around for a while as the new 'me'. I think back on that time and know it was because I was struggling with my identity and who I was supposed to be.
My husband and I had been together since we were teenagers, for something like twenty seven or twenty eight years, so when we parted I guess I lost direction, lost identity, lost me. My mother had passed away five years before that so changing my name was not something I would have considered while she was alive. This would have been inconceivable as I was carrying the family name forward into the future. After some time when I became stronger and more sure of myself, the identity crisis faded and so the need to change who I was through my name also faded. Some people going through this go out and get tattoos,get piercings in strange places on their body or take up some weird hobby. Some go out and buy a Harley of jump out of a plane. Some go out and get a new wife or husband or join a religious cult or take up line dancing (lol)) . Whatever 'gets you through the night' I guess.
So what is in a name? A lot, it says a lot about you, who you are, where you have come from and where you are going. It is one's visual stamp on the world, it remains long after one has left this mortal coil. It is something we pass onto our children and they to theirs. Be proud of the name you carry and you will be proud of yourself....there is truly only ONE unique and special individual called.............YOU.
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