What's in a name?

Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? I am not sure, but what I do know is: I have never thought so much about my name than I have this past week. I like my name and always have. I've never wanted to be called anything else, except for that one time in the third grade, but that had nothing to do with not liking my name.


I was the only Heather in my class, but there was a Hillary. My teacher kept getting our names confused so I told her she could start calling me my my middle name-- Marie. She tried later that same day, but I wouldn't answer, so we quickly went back to Heather and Hillary and confusion.

I've never really even had a nickname that has stuck. In high school my friends would write notes to Pyro, but they hardly called me that in person. Although occasionally I still get an I M or email addressed to Pyro, I am still Heather. I remember thinking at one point in time I wish I had a good nickname, but no one has ever found one that sticks.

There was the few years I went by a different name while I worked at Fantastic Sams, but that wasn't really a nickname. When I was hired at the salon there was another Heather already working there. The owner decided it would be too difficult and confusing for the clients to have two Heather's. The other Heather's clients would have to start asking for Heather S, and my incoming clients would have to ask for Heather D. She had lots of faith in the intelligence and loyalty of our clients. At any rate my name got shortened to D. Talk about confusing. I now had to tell people who had known me for years only as Heather to ask for D. And then later after the first Heather left I had to explain to my clients, who now knew my real name was Heather, why I went by D here, but no where else. I guess it didn't help that two of my good friends (Jodi and Tallia) were hired at the salon and would call me by my actual name. As soon as I stopped working at the salon I went back to being Heather full time.

Now I am in Germany, still in love with my name, but surrounded by people who can't pronounce it. German doesn't have the diphthong ea, not the consonant sound th, and well that is most of my name. At church on Sunday people tried to get it right, but most of them pronounced my name Header, as do most children, or with a z: Heazer. I am used to that so it isn't so bad. At school on Monday however was a different story. My first teacher had us all introduce ourselves. I repeated my name about 3 times before she gave up on pronouncing it properly. Maybe it is time to go by a different name again. If I were to translate my name it would become Heide. I may not answer to it right away, but at least people would be able to pronounce my name!