My Name

            My full name is Brandon Scott Aoki.  Obviously my name doesn’t mix too well with each other.  My first name was a struggle for my parents.  They couldn’t decide on whether or not they wanted me to have a Japanese name or not.  Eventually, they decided to save the Japanese name for the next child who ended up being a girl.  In the United States, Brandon is number 33 in the ranks of popular names. My name has different meanings.  In Old English the name Brandon is a combination of “brom” which means broom (weeds) and “dun” which means hill.  That means my name represents a dweller who lived on a hill full of weeds.  The Irish meaning of Brandon is someone filled with bravery.  Since I’m part Irish I choose to think of the Irish meaning instead.

            I guess at first I wasn’t going to have a middle name but my parents changed their mind in the end.  My middle name is named after my dad who has played an important role in my life.  My last name is Japanese.  Aoki is translated to “green tree”.  As you would think, it isn’t very popular in America but it is very common in central Japan.  Personally, my last name is my favorite out of my entire full name.  I can honestly say that I have never met anyone else with the same last name who wasn’t related to me.  It’s one feature that helps me be different from other people.  Even though it doesn’t happen quite as much as it used to, in school my teachers would have trouble pronouncing my name. Basically it’s Ay-oh-key.  Some teachers would butcher my name so bad that that’s how they remembered me. I was the kid whose name they couldn’t say which is something I find funny now. I used to be embarrassed when they screwed up on it because the kids would laugh and I thought that they were laughing at my name.  When I look back they were just laughing because my name gave the teacher trouble.

            If someone gave me the chance to change my name, I could easily reply with a simple “No”.  A name is what makes you who you are.  Your parents gave you that name for a reason.  Granted, if your name was Princess Butterfly or something weird like that, I could see why you might want to edit your name.  Other than that though, your name defines you.  It’s how your friends create nicknames for you.  It’s the name your mom uses when you did something wrong.  Whether your name is common or not, the way it is used to describe you is always unique.