Intro to Blogging

It's my first day of blogging! Will you humor my inner Leo? I'm thinking I should have a blogging alias -- something a step up from a screen name, but a step down from a nom de plume. George Sand had one. Even Dr. Suess. Can't I?

But as I'm writing this I'm realizing a couple of things. First of all, I'm one of the few people who actually likes my real name. It's a Shona name from Southern Africa that means tenderness, mercy and grace depending on who you're talking to. I think my parents chose it because of the closeness they felt to a friend from Zimbambwe (the country gained independence from the British in 1981, the same year Belize became self-ruled.)

I've never been able to hold down a nickname--at least not just one. I've been called:
Nyash (Mom, Obi)
Nyasha-zasha (Dad, Obi)
Anasha (my dislexic godbrother, at age 2)
Nushi (third grade boys)
Ni-ni (college friends)
Nishi (Michele, Tina, other college friends)
Niagara Falls (who the hell came up with this one?)
Nyah-Nyah (D)
Yoshi (K)
Nyasha (I was donned double Nyasha on an album cover during senior year of college, by the girls in my singing group who couldn't come up with anything else.)

I don't think any of these is going to cut it for the nom de plume. Other suggestions? Feel free to leave them here :-)

On a serious note, this blogging has made me remember the importance of naming. I've often wondered whether a nickname can bear as much meaning as one you choose for yourself. And I've always marveled at how a nickname can stick, no matter under what strange circumstances it came about. Since I've never really held down a nickname I don't know why this happens so easily. But I do believe that people and things can carry their names with them like a blessing or a burden.

Maybe the college girls knew that I couldn't hold down a nickname. Maybe my parents knew best, and for me they chose right. Either way I'm thankful my name and the history it holds in it.