A Rose By Any Other Name

Growing up with a unique name was certainly an adventure. It used to annoy me when people would mispronounce or misspell my name. My name is spelt phonetically, and because of that fact, I didn’t understand why so many people have such an issue with pronouncing or spelling my name. Now I realize that because people are not used to my name, they over think it and that is why they have such an issue. While I now understand why people struggle with my name, it still boggles my mind when people look at my name and call me names like Kassidy. There is no A or D in my name, so why try and add letters?

The story behind my name is that my Mom was college roommates with a wonderful woman named Kesinee. My Mom fell in love with the name, and when she had me, her first daughter, she gave me the name. The original Kesinee is now my God Mother as well.

I always get a good giggle out of visiting my God Mother at her day care that she runs out of her home. When I introduce myself to the kids, they always laugh and say that I can’t be named Kesinee. I have to get my God Mother to confirm for them that I share her name. It probably is because they are either not used to two people with the same name, or they are really not used to two people sharing such a unique name.

In school, I could always tell when the teacher would get to my name on the roster or during roll call. Because it was alphabetical by last name, I was always at the end of the list. There would be a giant pause, and the teacher would usually make some sort of face that showed how unsure they were about the pronunciation of the name they were reading. Most would try and take a stab at it, and the majority who tried would get close. A few would read off my last name and ask me how to say my first name. One that made me smile was when they said that they were not going to even attempt to say my name because they knew they would get it wrong and just said my last name. At least they tried?

While I may complain about my name because of the issues so many have with the pronunciation and spelling, I would never change it. I never had to deal with multiple people in my classroom with the same name, or with getting confused when someone would call out my name. I always knew that they meant to be talking to me. (Obviously this changes slightly when I am around my God Mother.)

My name is special to me. I will always be thankful that I was blessed with a unique name. But if I had a nickel for every time someone mispronounced or misspelled my name, I would have been able to pay for college.