“What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet".
Romeo & Juliet – William Shakespeare.
Why am I quoting Shakespeare, well in this case because I am trying to
decide if in fact ones name or the name of something has any real direct
meaning, implications or relationship. According to the quote we could call a
rose a rat, but it would still smell like a rose; ok but if we name our child
some made up name that we thought sounded cute, was original but that no one
could ever spell would that imply that the child or the parent had any less
education, financial or social standing then if we selected a traditional name.
(And who’s to say what a traditional name is, let’s not digress stay with me.)
Would a name like Aquisha, Shaynanay, Lactation (yes that is a name on
someone’s resume, stay with me its gets better) mean that this person is not
appropriately equipped to hold a “professional” job one that requires a 4 year
degree, and several years of progressive experience in a particular field? And
what images and thoughts come to mind when you see names like the
aforementioned in articles, on the TV screen and dare I say on a resume. Well if you are me, you take the opportunity
to open the resume review it because in all that I do I first must be fair and
approach my job with an open-mind and leave any subjective thought out of it.
(By the way that is hard to do. But I persevere.) So what has my experience
been? I am happy to say that I have met a Shaniquia who had her Masters and
worked at one of the big 4 accounting firms; I have interviewed a Shalonda who
was articulate, yet had a “need to
explain background”; I did not have the pleasure of meeting Lactation,
Aquisha or Shaynanay because on each of their resumes there were spelling
errors, missing information and in one case a request to make 6-figures
because, “My experience has proven that I
am worth every dollar you will spend.” I am not making this up I have over
20 years of data to pull from. My reason
for writing this is simply this, in all my years of experience I just would
like to say to those with unusual, different, cute, combo names please do
yourself a favor and proof-read, spell check, learn about the company you are
applying to and by all means provide the necessary information for a person to
contact you and lastly please stop providing fodder for those individuals out
there that think that your names tell the story without allowing you to. Be more than your name.
Gail
Which
means, lively, headstrong, independent
and somewhat self-centered: she wants to be the best at everything, also passive
and dependent, indecisive at times, as well as emotional, attentive and
altruistic, stepping aside to allow others to enjoy the limelight.
