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.