Personal Narrative: My Name

All of my life I have been called countless names, some of which irritated me and some did not bother me at all. In elementary school, when kids thought about the name ‘Jackie’ they tended to connect it to Jackie Chan thus calling me ‘Jackie Chan’. Furthermore, the kids seemed to link the name to being a masculine name the majority of the time, which began to annoy me since I answered the question, “Why do you have a boy’s name,” so many times. As years went by, I became used to being asked the question and the kids matured, thus stopped calling me ‘Jackie Chan.’

In middle school, kids’ minds began to develop and whenever I said my last name they would snicker. This also relates to my name being mispronounced, but it was not the first time having my last name mispronounced and definitely not the last. Middle school was probably one of the times I became the most aggravated towards people who said my name incorrectly. However, I had other

nicknames in middle school that were not so bad. One of my teachers had started calling me by my full name since it reminded her of an old television show, Jackie Brown. She basically said my first name normally and my last name quick. This caught on with the kids quickly, but it did not bother me since they pronounced my name correctly.
High school is when most of my nicknames came about and have stuck for quite a while.

I am unsure about how many of the nicknames started. Two names my friends called me in freshman year were, ‘Jaja’ and ‘Ja.’ For some odd reason we shortened each other’s names, I am uncertain of the exact reason, but I think it was because we were just plain lazy. Nevertheless, one name I am for sure of is, ‘Jackie Quack,’ it had started when I was spelling my name for one of my friends and to make it easier to remember I said if you add a line to the ‘h’ it would become a ‘k’ thus starting people to call me ‘Jackie Quack.’ This began a whole list of names, ‘Quackie Quack,’ ‘Quack Quack,’ and many more variations. I brought these names upon myself, so I could not be mad at anyone for starting them. When my friends constantly repeat the names is when I become irritated, but most of the time I am unfazed to the situation and laugh with my friends. Although I have many names of which I am called, the one name I want to be called is my

own.