To those who might ask: What pray tell is a Black name? My reply:

When I was in high school people would say, "You so don't have a black name." I guess because my name doesn't sound like the typical (or maybe stereotypical-because what is typical?) African-American name people would have a hard time with me. Its like, you had to have a certain name or certain persona in my high school to be considered 'black'. I know it sounds silly and believe me it is. But anyways, I used to think that I should change my name to reflect my African-American culture, but the older and wiser I got, the more I realized that my name didn't have to the kind of name that others saw as being reflective of African-American culture, all that mattered was that I knew who I am and where I'm coming from.

I do however see the significance in changing your name or taking on additional names, people do that all the time when they are trying to rebirth themselves or recreate a new role for themselves, and from time to time I have gone by different nick names or had different circles of friends call me different things. Its like once I had babe I became mum at home and DH became dad and we just kind of refer to one another like that now. But in some circles I'm called x and some circles y. I like that, I like the fluidity of taking on another name as I move through and am around different people.

My family, my dad's family in particular is big on names, I guess that's why I have such a long one. One first name, a middle name, another name I got when I was baptized, a name I took when I was confirmed, another name I adopted when I starting to actually practice a religion by choice, and then my maiden name + my husband's last name. No, they aren't all on my birth certificate, but I like having them in my pocket.

Now I have Tinkerbell too.