What’s in a name?

When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, he must not have encountered a name such as mine. Else, he would not have remarked thus, ‘What’s in a name?’ My name is Jezvin Little George. Sounds rather exotic and strange doesn’t it? Growing up with a name as such, I was badgered with several questions, “Isn’t that a boy’s name?”, “What’s with the Little?”, “Did your mother foresee that you would be ‘Little’ forever?”, “Your father’s name isn’t George and how come your surname is different?”. All these questions were undoubtedly followed by mockery and giggles. My name has always been a bone of contention through the years growing up. I ended up with several arguments with my mother over my name. (I know Shakespeare is shaking his head, looking down at me and asking, ‘What’s in a name?’ Well, screw you.)

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Teenagers are a bucketful of emotions growing up and I was not any different. It was a never ending cycle whenever I met a stranger, had to introduce myself and provide an hour lecture on how to pronounce my name and the etymology behind it. I disliked the whole routine. I found it rather embarrassing to explain about my name to every Tom, Dick and Harry I met on the street. This eventually led to several tiffs between my mother and myself. I had pleaded to have my name changed several times, but they went unheard. Having no option, I went through the same fiasco with every person (you can’t really skip out from meeting people, meeting and greeting are ‘manners’). Nobody realised what I was going through, I presume. Being shamed for your name is not fun, not at all.

It wasn’t until I met Rijoy did I know the significance of my name. I was seventeen when I met him and a huge part of what I am today is because of his influence in my life. Having a male best friend was a big deal in the society I grew up in and we were mistaken(obviously!) to be in a relationship rather than being great friends. Kerala(the state I grew up in) being the most literate state in India, was not as enlightened as one would expect it to be.

So, yes …Rijoy. I do not know if I could call him my best friend. We have never been able to define our relationship under a single term. He molded the terrible teenager in me into a very likable young woman with his remarkable listening skills, patience, endurance and trust. I have known him for over a decade now and I can say that he is God given and he definitely deserves a blog by itself . We first met on the 1st of October 2009. I introduced myself to him and told him my name. To my surprise, his face did not have the mocking or funny reactions I receive for my name. Instead he had a beautiful smile on his face, and he addressed me as ‘Jezz’. This sounds trivial, but this hit me like crazy. I LOVED being called that way. He was the first one to tell me that he loved my name. Months later, one day I happened to tell him about my aversion towards my name. Without any expression or words in the attempt to comfort me (he is a man of less words), he said, “Jezz, let’s find the origin of your name”. That was something I never bothered to do.

I got home and approached the ‘creator’ of my name, my mother!
This is the day when the love for my mother doubled and tripled. This was her story.
She lost her first born and when she conceived again, she was very excited. She wanted the name to be extra special. And…

The story of my name:

Middle name: LITTLE
My baptismal name is ‘Kochuthresia’ and that was the Malayalam nomenclature for St.Thresa of Lisieux. This saint is known as the Little flower of the Catholic Church. My mother borrowed the little from her and gave it to me.

Last name: George
My father’s name is Varghese and the saint St George in Malayalam is Varghese. There is an intention for why my mother picked the translated version of my father’s name and gave it as my surname. When I was born, she thought that if I happened to go abroad when I grow up, she didn’t want people having difficulty pronouncing an Indian surname and mocking me.

Some facts to end this story:
First, I love my name now.
Second, I love my mother more.
Third, I realize how foreseeing and thoughtful mothers can be.
and fourth, I did move out of India to two other continents and people love my name. They say my name is unique and does not sound Indian (I guess my mother’s intention came true), they do ask for the origin of the name and get awestruck hearing the story. So… what’s in a name? So you ask, Shakespeare, so you ask!