My Name (rewritten)
Written September 2003
Names. What can be said about names?
They’re given to children by parents, sometimes with ancestral reason and
sometimes for pure love of the name. Everyone has a name, a name all his
or her own. Each name, no matter how common it is, is unique in its own way.
My name is Debra Rose. Debra, meaning “Bee” in Hebrew.
Rose, meaning simply a flower, a beautiful flower. The names mean more than
just bee and flower for me, though.
My paternal grandmother had four boys and only one girl,
named Holly. My only true aunt on my father’s side died in a car crash before
I was born. Since I learned about my aunt’s existence, I wanted to be named
after her. My alternate name, used online and in writing, became Holly Burns,
after her and my mother’s maiden name. I was looking too hard for a simple
thing, though. When I finally thought to ask my mother why she named me Debra,
I learned that I had Holly’s name all along: Debra was Holly’s middle name.
There used to exist a family joke that I was named Rose
after my Aunt Rosie, but that joke is nothing but fiction. In truth, the
Rose in my name came from my paternal great-grandmother, a fellow December
baby. Great-grandmother and great-granddaughter, connected by birth month
and name. Sweet, isn’t it?
As a Jewish girl, I rightfully have two sets of names,
in English and in Hebrew. My English name is my legal name, the name most
know me by: Debra Rose. My Hebrew name is not too far off from it: Devorah
Rachel. Devorah, the Hebrew (and original) variation of Debra. Rachel, meaning
“Ewe,” a name out of the Torah.
For a short time I went by my Hebrew name, and from that
sprang my nickname: Dev Rose. If I could have chosen my own name, I would
have chosen Dev. It is a connection between my English and Hebrew names,
taking my middle name in English and a shortened version of my Hebrew first
name. The funny thing is, it was stumbled upon quite by accident.
Rayet is one of my friends. I was talking to her one night
in September of 2002, and she got lazy. She didn’t want to write out Devorah,
yet she had to say my name. She took “Devorah” and omitted four of the letters,
naming me simply, “Dev.” Such a simple abbreviation, and it stuck. To this
day I am Dev.
Debra Rose. Devorah Rachel. Dev Rose. Three names, one
person: me.