My Name
Written Summer 2002; Updated December 2002
I used to dislike my name.
Debra Rose. I thought it sounded bad, looked bad in cursive, and had no
meaning. Not anymore, though.
I’ve known the reason for my middle name being
Rose for a while. I have jokingly said that it’s after my aunt Rosie, but
that’s not true. I am named after my paternal great-grandmother. Oh yippee,
I’ve always thought. How exciting. What I didn’t know, though, is that the
two of us are in a way connected. We were both born in December, her on December
25th and me on the 27th.
Let me tell a story before I go on about my name.
My paternal grandmother, Florence Singer, had four boys and one girl, named
Holly. My only true aunt on my father’s side died before I was born, in
a car crash, if I remember correctly.
I had always wished that I had been named Holly,
after the aunt I’d never meet. I used that name for my penname, Holly Burns,
that’s how much I used to wish that I had been named Holly.
I had not known where the Debra in my name came
from until recently. Earlier this year, my friend and I were talking about
the tales behind our names. I told her about my middle name, and then decided
to ask my mother about my first name. What she told me was a surprise. As
it turns out, I’ve had what I had wished for all along. Debra was Holly’s
middle name.