My Name

Hannah Jones Julian. It is the name – my name – that I was given and have grown into for nineteen years. I wonder how long it took my parents to come up with my name. That has to be a pretty tough decision! One name for the rest of your life... well that's the idea anyway. I suppose people go ahead and change their names all the time these days. But that seems like a desperate search for a new identity to me. At any rate, I'll be sticking with my name. I think my parents did a pretty good job when they name me. I love my name. Although you can find at least 36 Hannah Julian’s on Facebook and quite a few images of Hannah Jones on Google, there are not so many people, if any, named Hannah Jones Julian.

I never really had a problem with my first name, Hannah, except that you can’t shorten it to make a cute nickname. There’s only Hannahbanana, which, as fun as it is to say, is just too cliché. Many friends have tried to think of a nickname for me, but with nothing but “Hans” or “Hanny” I consider them very unsuccessful. But other than that minor detail, I only have positive things to say about the name Hannah.

For me personally, Hannah is a family name; my mother’s great great grandmother’s name or something (I can’t remember exactly how far back it goes). But Hannah is also a biblical name; she was a woman known for her strong faith and powerful prayer.

If you were to look up the name Hannah, you would discover that it means something along the lines of  “grace of God,” “favor,” or “good listener,” depending on the interpretation. I find these to be beautiful interpretations of the name, in fact I often brag about them, especially to my sister Holly. In our little book of names at home, Holly means “bush.” But overall, I find these meanings to be relatively accurate. In a conversation I once had with a friend of mine, she told me that she had never met a Hannah who didn’t have pleasant personality…and I have to agree. It may be coincidental but I can’t think of one person named Hannah whom I didn’t like. (Keep in mind this thought is purely concerning the name Hannah in general. I am in no way idolizing my own personality; it was merely an interesting and complimentary conversation.)

The final and most fun fact about the name Hannah is its appealing quality as a palindrome (which is why I believe you must spell it with an “h” at the end.)

I was not so fond of my middle name when I was younger. For a long time I did not share my middle name with other people. Not that I tried to keep it a secret, but I found it rather uninteresting and not very pretty and so I rarely brought it into conversation. I used to wish I had a more “normal” middle name. So many people I know share more common middle names such as Marie or Elizabeth. These names are pretty, but I imagine it loses a little of its luster when you have seven friends with the same name. I have yet to personally meet someone with my middle name.

My sister and I both have unusual middle names. Mine – Jones – I thought sounded like an old lady name and my sister’s – Andrews – sounded like the name of a boy. And the truth of it is my name is an old name; once again, it’s a family name. It’s a name that I have come to appreciate for its uniqueness.  The name Jones brings out my mother’s English heritage and contrasts it with my last name, a representation of my father’s Italian heritage, heritages I am very proud of. And so I have made the transformation from not caring for my middle name to embracing it.

And my last name just seals the deal; Julian, or Juliano as it was originally. I remember being a sophomore in high school and one of my peers, someone I had never really talked to, informed me that "Hannah Julian is a perfect name, it has a nice ring to it." Needless to say I was flattered and slightly embarrassed.

It can be fun to play the name game with friends and try to figure out what name they "look like." But in the end, I think that my name fits me just right. :)