My Name is…
By Angel Casillan
When I was growing up, I had several nicknames, and so did my friends. We acquired names by various ways, mostly from teasing or from events that happened to us personally. Some names stuck while others faded away with time.
So here’s how I think names came about…
What is in a name besides merely the letters?
It is what’s in the person that will really matter.
When you are called handsome but you know you’re not,
Would you feel insulted or would you just toss it out?
Would you feel ridiculed if you were called a genius,
If you knew that your IQ was in the hundred minus?
But if you were slow and couldn’t get the meaning,
Would people call you impaired or some other put-down?
When you use a name that describes you as bright,
Is that indicative of an ego that doesn’t sound right?
When names had been the way people were described,
Wasn’t that the beginning of how our names were derived?
Times there were when portrayals were such names
That could denote humor, disdain, or place of origin,
But the name that would stick is that one you’d never use,
For that unwanted one would be your nickname forever.
