becoming Aerin Leigh
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact
  • Small Journeys and Sacred Spaces
  • This Abundant Life
    • Trending in the House
    • Prob'ly Need to Get Out More
    • Whoever Belongs to Us
  • Booked for Life
    • Book Bytes for Grown-Ups
    • Book Bytes for Kids
  • Politics Aside

Small Journeys &
​  Sacred Spaces

Like my fb page at
http://www.facebook.com/becomingaerinleigh

Home

Why I Changed My Name

3/5/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture

Why I Changed My Name

It cannot have escaped your notice that I am writing (and working) under a different name.  Here’s the story. I was born Annette Lee Ditmore in 1967 right on the heels of the Mickey Mouse phenomena.  By the time I came along, it had died down just a little; the Mousketeers had gone into syndication and the rage had evolved to Annette Funicello and Frankie Valley in Beach Blanket Bingo and the rest of the beach movies.  My mother loved them all.  Annette Funicello was an icon of the era and her idol.  And I was her first and only daughter – so I became Annette.

Lee is a family middle name handed down through generations.  My grandmother Grace’s middle name was Lee.  My father’s middle name is Lee.  So are both my brothers (I can still hear my father’s  voice booming through the house when someone had done something worth answering for and it was necessary to use middle names -  Steve Lee! Annette Lee! Jayson Lee!  - the Lee part always rang up a few octaves).  I feminized it by giving it to my daughter as Leigh.  It never seemed right that my Lee was spelled the same as my brothers’.  I even heard a story once that my grandmother tried to pass herself off as Gracea Leigh, which may be an indication that a desire to change one’s identity may be an inherited gene.  . . but that’s for another story. . . Coincidentally, my son-in-law’s middle name is Lee, and so, of course, when my granddaughter was born in July of 2009, she naturally became Mackenzie Leigh.  Lee/ Leigh is an integral part of who I am – one little melodic syllable that defines me, and connects me to people I love.  I wouldn’t change it.  Well, maybe just a little. . .

Annette, to me (sorry, Mom), is anything but melodic.  Two hard syllables that equate to the sound you might make when you stub your toe or you get punched in the gut, and maybe you’re trying not to curse (unsuccessfully). #@UH*NETT&%j.  Once in the second grade (I am not making this up), my teacher was giving a grammar lesson on articles – specifically the usage of a or an paired with certain nouns – and she decided to use the word net to make her point. Having mastered that lesson already, I felt that I was above such nonsense, and had reposed into daydream mode long before that point.  I was called back from my reverie (I thought) by a stern scolding (I thought) that was actually animated teaching – Annette! A net?! Or an net?!  It was unnerving!  I had immediately resumed my good student dutifully listening stance, so why did she keep saying my name?  Why was she YELLING at me?!  And why wasn’t she looking at me while she was yelling at me?!  Was this some kind of teacher trick used on the bad kids that I had never been privy to?  Was I one of the bad ones now?  My heart began racing wildly. A net! Good! Now I was thoroughly confused until I realized that she was pointing to the board and none of this had anything to do with me at all.  The whole incident had played out in less than thirty seconds, but it had been enough to convince me that Annette was not a good name to go through life with.

It is probably worth mentioning here that my mother’s name is Antoinette.  Beautiful and charming.  One little syllable – twa – that makes all the difference.  Antoinette, and the twa becomes Toni when it is shortened. Darling.  Annette. Ouch. Such a subtle distinction that defines one a queen or a wounded mouse(keteer).

But I digress again.  Once I made the radical decision to actually change my name, this is how I decided who I would be. . . Anyone who knows me well knows that both of my grandmothers had an enormous amount of influence on me.  I have often said that one taught me how to love and the other taught me how to live.  The latter was my mother’s mother who was of distinct Irish descent.  Her mother was “right off the boat” and though I never met her (my great-grandmother), I often imagined I detected a hint of the brogue in my grandmother’s loud and strong Buffalo, New York dialect.  She lived to be almost 94 and was stoic and irrepressible.  Even when she was dying of Cancer, and you would ask her how she was, she would always answer with a cheerful, “Oh, I can’t complain.”  She could have, but she didn’t.  She could always find something to be happy about, and I believe this attributed to her longevity. I chose Erin because it means Ireland, and symbolizes one half (at least) of where I come from.  The other half, I’ve already explained.  And I’ve decided to keep my “A” – that’s all mine. So there it is – Aerin Leigh.  

A final, affirming little detail - literally translated, Aerin Leigh means Irish poet. I did not know this until after I chose it.  I have been known to write a few poems, among other things. . . maybe I will embark on a new career with my new name as I am becoming Aerin Leigh. . . but that’s another story. . . I’ve got a lot to tell.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    40+ Runner
    5 Reasons To Love Michigan
    5 Things I've Learned About Running
    About A-boy-and-his-part-time-dog
    Among The Leaves
    And The Earth Just Keeps Spinning
    Another Kind Of Hero
    Beach Memories
    Book-bytes-baby-readers-gallery
    Brave New World
    Bright Lights
    Brittany's Mountain
    Chasing Dogwoods
    Coming Home To Myself
    Common Core
    Flashback Friday - Chicago Reunion
    Flashback Friday - Let The Magic Move You
    Flashback Friday - Name Changer
    Friendships Of A Lifetime
    Gettysburg Ghosts
    Horrible Story Of Grace
    How To Rename A Broken Memory
    In Celebration Of July
    In These High
    Is It Soup Season Yet?
    #Let's Get Real Moms
    Levi In June
    Life Interrupted
    Lonely Places
    Mackenzie's Mile
    Merry Christmas . . . Don't Kill The Buzz
    Mondays With Kelsey
    My First Ghost Story
    My Grandfather's Books
    One Year Later
    Revisiting Why I'll Never Teach Again
    Saturday Night Ghost
    Shattered
    #Shout Your Life Story
    Small Journeys
    Stopping In The Storm
    Summer Memories From The Far North
    They Have To Know
    Watching The Moon Down
    What Am I Doing Here?
    You Can't Escape Your DNA

    Archives

    July 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    August 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    July 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    I'm Aerin Leigh.  I'm a once upon a time teacher and a forever reading cheerleader.  I'm a writer, a reading specialist, and a a believer in the power of words.  I've seen a little of the world, but my first love is Michigan.  I live here with my husband and two spoiled Boxer dogs, Merlot and Riesling.  We're happy empty nesters and we spend a lot of time in our hot tub. . . to stay warm.  Winter is my solace, but Summer has been my teacher and my friend.  I'm an occasional runner, and a constant connoisseur of wine and friendship and gel nails.  Anything that lights up is magic to me . . .  like fireflies, the glow of a storybook moon, Christmas lights under the stars, and my Colorado grandbabies' faces when they see me on Skype.  I embrace quirky things like Feng Shui and Acupuncture and prayer . . . because they just might work.  I'm a survivor of much and of many, but I leave my heart wide open.  My children are my role models, my current passion is possibility, and my God is good. 


    Come follow my leap of faith journey . . . There'll probably be a lot of crazy, but you just might get to witness a soft landing.  
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.