My mother was born in Puerto Rico (with her twin brother) as the youngest of 9 children. Her mother named her Irma, and her brother William. When her father went to register their names and get their birth certificates he completely forgot the names. I guess it’s understandable after having had so many children. So when he got there he looked at the calendar. It was July, and the calendar said “Julio.” So he named them “Julio” and Julia.” The family still called her “Irma” though, even though they only called her brother “Julio.”
My mom had a few names decided for me when I was born. Two of which were “Margarita” and “Rocio.” But just after I was born my dad suggested giving me the name my mom was supposed to have, so she did.
As a result I have since been dubbed “Imy” (pronounced “Eeemeee”) by everyone on my mom’s side of the family since they all call her “Irma.”
I like the story, and think it gives character to my name, and I like to tell it too. I adore my name now, but it hasn’t always been that way…
When I was growing up I hated my name. I suppose it started at some point when I was around 10 or so, when the other kids really started picking on me. My name was always snickered at. I remember an incident where a bunch of girls in my 5th grade class were playing with those trolls that were so popular back then. I walked by and overheard my name, so I stopped. One of the girls turned to me and said, “Oh, we weren’t talking to you, that’s just what they (the trolls) are called.” Obviously I wasn’t stupid. I knew that wasn’t true. I walked away and then the snickering started. I think that was the point where I started to hate my name.
It just got worse from then on. Every time I would say my name to someone they would raise a brow and make some sort of lame ass joke. “What? Did you just sneeze?” or ask me repeatedly what it was since they couldn’t seem to understand it. To this day I can’t understand that. It’s not like it’s a totally wacky name. “Irma” is quite easy to pronounce in my opinion. And even though it may not be the most common name in the world, it’s not like people have never heard it. Usually older ladies have the other incarnations of if, “Erma.” Yeah, I always got teased about that too. Yeah and I got slack even from my “best friend” too…
About the time I started high school my mom started to pronounce my name the way it really should be pronounced to her, “Eeeeeeeeeeeerrrrma.” Rolling R’s and all. It made my name sound a lot nicer to me. Of course when I tried it in school I got buried. The other kids had a ball with it.
At one point I was absolutely sure I was going to change my name. I don’t remember what my name choices where, though. Such a stupid idea. Glad I never went through with it (I don’t think my parents would have let me anyway)
I finally started to like my name when one thing happened.
Steven Tyler told me it was cool.
It was the summer of ’97 and my cousin had gotten me tickets and backstage passes to an Aerosmith concert. We were backstage before the show, when Steven came out to talk with us all. When he got to me I rambled on about nothing, and asked him to sign something for me. He asked my name and when I told him he just smiled and said “Wow that’s a cool name!” Well, if it’s good enough for Steven Tyler it’s good enough for me!
After that I started to see more good things about my name. It was so very uncommon that no one really ever needed to use my last name when referring to me. Kind of like “Madonna” or “Cher.” I also made some really good friends who helped raise my self-esteem, and soon enough it didn’t bother me at all anymore.
Now I would never change it, not for a million dollars. Glad I never tried to.
« Hide it
