What's in a Name?

In the excerpt from Firoozeh Dumas’s memoir, “The F-Word”, she talks about the difficulties of having a foreign name “in this land of Joes and Marys” here in America. With the aid of humor and honesty, she explains some of the struggles that one goes through with a “unique” name and how she has dealt with it in our culture. When she was twelve, she decided to change her name to a more familiar and traditional one (Julie) that would be less problematic for everyone. She soon found out though that, “…simplifying one’s life in the short run only complicates it in the long run (Pg61, Remix).” She realized that she was living two completely separated lives with her colleagues knowing her by one name and her friends and family by another. She says on page 62 that, “Once I got married, my name became Firoozeh Dumas. I went from having an identifiably “ethnic” name to having ancestors who wore clogs. My family and non-American friends continued calling me Firoozeh, while my coworkers and American friends called me Julie. My life became one big knot….” Her two worlds were contradicting each other as she “felt like a fake (Pg 62, Remix).” I can relate to this because even though I have grown more comfortable with my name as I have gotten older, as a child growing up I would hate my name because most people would not pronounce it right. I would be called Dave, Dan, Damien, Dana etc… anything but Dane. A lot of times I would just go with it, especially if I knew I would never meet this person again. Now that I have I grown up a little bit and grown to love my name, I rarely let a person get away with the wrong name. I have grown to appreciate it for its own distinctiveness. Firoozeh realized the same thing as she eventually went
back to her real name full time. She discovered that it is because of the “complexity” of her given name that makes it that much more unique and special. It is because of people like Firoozeh that enables people to look outside of themselves and accept and appreciate everyone for their own individuality.

My mom has told me that she got my name from the novel, The Thorne
Birds (This is a little embarrassing). I honestly believe that I had something to do with this, as we all do. I believe that we all choose our names, along with everything else that revolves around us, before we even come to this earth. Maybe this is for another topic, but in general names really do define us whether we like it or not in our modern society. Firoozeh Dumas’s story really shines a bright light on this. I thought that the excerpt we read was great. It shows that in our society, first impressions are everything and if a person has trouble with something as simple as your name he or she is much less likely be interested in you. Firoozeh Dumas’s overall message of what is and what is not accepted in American culture gives a transparent look at how judgmental we really are. I for one do not see any problems with “adding a few new spices to the kitchen pantry.” as it can only open up our heats and minds even more with accepting people for who they really are. It is because of people like Firoozeh, that enables people to look outside of themselves and accept and appreciate everyone for their own individuality and not who we perceive them to be.

I have grown more comfortable with my name as I have gotten older. As a child growing up I would hate my name because most people would not pronounce it right. I would be called Dave, Dan, Damien, Dana etc… anything but Dane. A lot of times I would just go with it, especially if I knew I would never meet this person again. Now that I have I grown up a little bit and grown to love my name, I rarely let a person get away with the wrong name. I have grown to appreciate it for its own uniqueness.


My mom has told me that she got my name from the novel, The Thorne Birds (This is a little embarrassing). I honestly believe that I had something to do with this, as we all do. I believe that we all choose our names, along with everything else that revolves around us, before we even come to this earth. Maybe this is for another topic but in general names really do define us whether we like it or not in our modern society. Firoozeh Dumas’s story really shines a bright light on this. I thought that the excerpt we read was great. It shows that in our society first impressions are everything and if a person has trouble with something as simple as your name he or she is much less likely be interested in you. I can really relate to her story as she adds humor to a very serious element of all of our everyday lives.