What’s in a Name?

Amy George (maiden name: Villagomez) is an MLIS graduate student at the University of Maryland with a focus on diversity and inclusion and a current intern at the Diverse BookFinder.

Illustration by Thao Lam from Thao.

Back to school is around the corner and as a parent I am nostalgic for buying school supplies and new clothes. But I’m also reminded of one experience that I always dreaded on the first day of the school year: Roll Call. Once we found our assigned seats and the bell rang, my anxiety started as my teacher would begin calling out our names in alphabetical order by last name. Mine starting with a "V" was always close to the end. It would usually go something like this:

 “Amy Villa….Villa...Oh, I’m not even gonna try.” 

“That’s okay, it's Villagomez.” 

“Oh I don’t think I’ll ever get that right.”

Or: 

“Amy Gomez?”

“It’s actually Villagomez, all one word.”

And one memorable time:

“Amy Veeylagomez.”

“Here. I actually pronounce it Villagomez.”

“In Spanish it’s pronounced veela.”

“I know, but my family just says Villa. I don’t speak Spanish.”

“Well, you are saying it wrong.”

“It’s my name, so…”

At the time it felt like I was alone in this experience: People struggling with the pronunciation of my name. My being required to share personal family history in order to have my name make sense to this stranger who has a great amount of power and control over my school life. Having teachers comment on the way my name was pronounced or how unpronounceable it was, giving public permission to my classmates to make the same kinds of comments. 

My feelings ranged from incredulity, anger, frustration, and wanting to say, "Sound it out," but refraining because I knew that I could not be disrespectful to a teacher regardless of their disrespectful manners towards me. I always felt alone and singled out year after year, even when there were other students who experienced something similar. All we could do was nod at each other as this ritual was repeated with each new instructor. At best we were alone, together.

There was no language for what we were experiencing, nothing addressing what is now so easily referred to as a micro aggression. Learning this language as an adult was so liberating, and having discussions about how these small hurts repeated again and again have a lasting impact is so helpful now. I wish I had that then. As an adult I know now that I am not alone in this experience, that many students share(d) this discomfort. 

I would have benefitted from books and media that addressed this experience, that told me I wasn’t alone. I applied to work with Diverse Book Finder because I felt that I needed these books when I was a child.

Diversity was not as big of a trend in education at the time. Even if books about names were written, I did not have access to them through my education. My parents would have had trouble finding them on their own. Our goal is not only to collect books that feature diversity but also to provide access to those titles. I am comforted knowing that children today have more media that explores and contextualizes these fraught experiences and micro aggressions. I am thrilled to be working to help make titles like the ones below more accessible to librarians, educators and parents.

Here are some books from our collection that explore and celebrate names and all they say about who we are: 

Coming Soon to the Collection:

Thao: A Picture Book by Thao Lam