what's in a name?

a layout from 2009

i go by many names.  at times it feels like an identity crisis.  the name our parents give us doesn't always fit who we think we are. i know i always took the name thing very seriously with our kids.  it had to be right or it could ruin their lives. not really, but a name identifies us in more than the obvious ways.  the story behind my name is really the story of how i discovered who i am.

nena 
i am the first girl after two boys.  and my dad and grandfather loved giving the babies nicknames right away.  so my nickname was "nena", meaning little girl.  it's pretty common in mexico to call your little girl nena.  my parents still call me that and a lot of my cousins, aunts and uncles.  and it's funny because i have many girl cousins but i am the only one named "nena".  when sofia realized that it was one of names, she started calling me that too.  kind of ironic, but sweet at the same time.

betty
although it's not on my birth certificate, my middle name is beatriz, after my dad's mom.  my mom told me that they just never added it but told everyone that that was my name.  i became know as betty.  when i started going to school the name on the roll was gioconda but i always corrected the teacher and said "you can call me betty".  that always got a laugh.  and then "how do you get betty from gioconda?"  it was hard being in junior high and going to school with girls named lisa, heather, and michelle.  and good luck trying to find anything personalized with "gioconda".  i just wanted to be like everyone else.  i didn't appreciate the beauty of my name back then.

bobby calls me "b".  actually we call each other b.  as it turns out that was his grandmother's nickname as well, even though her real name was doris.  (but that's a whole other blog post.) our family has given us the nickname of "the bees".  hence the url for my blog is "busybees5". and yes, we have cute little bee things around the house to remind us.

gioconda
it is the name on my birth certificate.  it is also my mother's name.  the story is that my grandmother read it in a spanish novela and loved it, so she named my mom gioconda. and then my parents passed it on to me.  it wasn't until i graduated from high school that i embraced the name.  all of this time i wanted to blend in and be like everyone else.  in college it really didn't matter what my name was.  many times we were just a number on the roll sheet.  occasionally the professor would take roll and i was right back in high school giving the explanation.  but i found that the name started to fit who i wanted to be.

as i started to network with industry people, i would introduce myself as gioconda.  i found that the unique name set me apart.  it was also the perfect conversation starter in a job interview.  i love that i would get the handshake and then they would say, "that's an interesting name. what does it mean?"  so, here's that story.

leonardo da vinci was commissioned by francesco del giocondo, a wealthy businessman in florence, to paint a portrait of his wife lisa gherardini.  da vinci started the painting but never returned it to francesco and instead took it to france where he eventually died.  it now sits in the louvre gallery.  the painting is know as "la gioconda" but more commonly as the mona lisa.  kind of a cool story, don't you think?  we went to paris 13 years ago and i took a picture in front of the painting but it was pre-digital so i don't have the image to share.

my name gets misspelled all the time.  most commonly as "giaconda" since that is how it is pronounced.  when i was working i used to keep the address labels with all the different spellings just for laughs.  and i am asked if there is a shortened version.  i usually say, "just g".  honestly it doesn't bother me but i find that i take more care in spelling other people's name correctly.

it was fun being in italy in 09 where my name fit in so perfectly.  and they pronounced it better than i did.  but it's a hefty name to carry around.  the mysterious woman, the famous painting, the smile.  but i love it and carry it with so much pride.

on our trip to italy we spotted this hotel in florence and i had to get a picture.

i identify people in my life by what name they call me.  my family calls me nena. anyone who knows me before college calls me betty.  as a career woman and a mommy, it's gioconda.  those names identify the different stages of my life.  we had a party a few years ago and one of the school moms came over to me and said, "i just talked to your mother-in-law and she kept referring to someone named betty.  it took me a while to figure out she was talking about you."  it can get confusing when all of those names come together in one room.

in doing research for this blog post i also found out that the name means "the joyful one."  not sure that describes me, but now that i know i will try to live up to that.