The Implications of Names

What is a name? It’s nothing more than a predisposed identifier given to people by their parents. Sometimes it’s a name that gets passed down from generation to generation, sometimes it’s from a grandparent or other relative, or sometimes it’s straight out of a baby book. Regardless of where it originates, a gender is often associated with each specific name a baby could receive. Connotations form with a baby before they are even able to speak based on what identifier the parent gives them. And when I came across this poem, it had me further think about the implications of names:

A girl named Jack

BY JACQUELINE WOODSON

Good enough name for me, my father said

the day I was born.

Don’t see why

she can’t have it, too.

But the women said no.

My mother first.

Then each aunt, pulling my pink blanket back

patting the crop of thick curls

tugging at my new toes

touching my cheeks.

We won’t have a girl named Jack, my mother said.

And my father’s sisters whispered,

A boy named Jack was bad enough.

But only so my mother could hear.

Name a girl Jack, my father said,

and she can’t help but

grow up strong.

Raise her right, my father said,

and she’ll make that name her own.

Name a girl Jack

and people will look at her twice, my father said.

For no good reason but to ask if her parents

were crazy, my mother said.

And back and forth it went until I was Jackie

and my father left the hospital mad.

My mother said to my aunts,

Hand me that pen, wrote

Jacqueline where it asked for a name.

Jacqueline, just in case

someone thought to drop the ie.

Jacqueline,  just in case

I grew up and wanted something a little bit longer

and further away from

Jack.

 

The father, who I assume is also named Jack, wanted to name his newborn daughter Jack. At first glance, it may seem like the father doesn’t care about what the name will be or may even see it as a joke. But he shows pride in the name Jack, stating “name a girl Jack and she can’t help but grow up strong.” He wants his daughter to grow up strong, with pride for her uniqueness. One could view this as a chance to be different. As most girls won’t be named Jack, she has a chance to be something new. The father thinks by “rais[ing] her right” that she will take pride in her male name.

The mother, on the other hand, stands for the normalcy of names. She believes that naming a girl Jack will make “her parents” look “crazy.” The notion that a girl could be named Jack goes against the flow of society. Anyone without warning, if they were to see the name Jack, would automatically assume the gender of male. The mother sees a future of misgendering and assumptions tied to their daughter. None of which are positive. She wants her daughter to travel the path most taken – a feminine name. The mother was so bent on making sure she had a feminine name, that not even “Jackie” sufficed. But ultimately, it matters what the child thinks.

The ending line “I grew up and wanted something a little bit longer and further away from Jack” shows the side in which the daughter stands. She grew up in the society where Jack is unacceptable, and once grown, also wanted nothing that had to do with the name “Jack”

After all the thought that went into her name, it made me think about the origin of my own. Unlike the author, I have pride in my name. For as long as my dad could remember, he wanted to have a daughter named Cheryl. And as the first child, my dad got his wish. If I were to be born a boy, how would my dad have reacted? Maybe he would have named me Charlie, something close to Cheryl. But I will never have the experience of a masculine name. I wouldn’t experience what a girl named Jack would go through over the course of her life. Through the idea of a masculine and feminine name, people could have radically different lives. A name is an identifier that we live with for the rest of our lives. Sadly, societal norms often cast us away from half of the names that could be.

(Image Credits)