What's In A Name

The Name Saga will probably never end, I realize that now; I was somewhat of a fool too not realize that things will become more complicated it has become so much more complicated to do even simple things like planning a an overseas trip, even getting mail is more of a hassle now. Why ?

Because I'm the , only one in Sweden with is name and I think I might be the only one in the entire world with this particular combination of names. I still think it was worth it, I feel more true to myself and I naivëly think that my birth family ses this as some kind of dedication. Hey, I'm proud to be Korean but I might even be the most prooud of my birth family, I want them to know that I considers myself to be a part of their big family. Although I'm not entirely sure if they really are or at least not in the way I'd like them to be. I know that my birth family are tremendously proud of the fact that they have one younger sister in Sweden and by removing not changing my name that obvious link to Sweden becomes less obvious.

I used to be anonymous whith a really Swedish sounding name, not only am I now no longer anonymous; because of my name people tend to get confused and I suppose I'm getting stereotyped. Maybe I was to naivë or stubborn or maybe even way ahead of my time I suppose society aren't used to people choosing to do exactly what I did.

My name no longer makes it possible to guess what nationality I am, it no longer sounds Swedish because I chose to change it that way. It might sound more English or American if anything although my surname and one of my names are Swedish. But I guess that doesn't count because I could be one of those mailorder brides that chose to get married to an ethnic Swede or maybe a second generation immigrant (but in reality I'm neither of it, I'm a first generation immigrant caused by adoption.

I know for a fact that I'm not the only Korean adoptee that changed their personal name back, but I guess it's not that common to have that many names. Ultimately it's my life and I should be able to make certain decisions by myself.Funnily enough, one of my names was in the Swedish almanack but since it wasn't a name that my adoptive parents choice they just dismissed the hole idea. Usually a Name Day or Namnsdag is a really big deal in Sweden the equivalent of a Birthday. At least in my family it used to be that way...

Anyways, I suppose I should be grateful that I was able to complete a namy change if anything, although neither of my families supported it or understood it. My birth family as well as my adoptive parents tried to persuade me to do otherwise. Somehow my name change seemed to really hurt my Swedish grandma...

If ever do decide to change my mind and want my anonymous I could always apply for a dissolvement of my name change which actually is free. In my mind I wonder if there is another way to join my two families togheter and if there's another way to handle this issue with a personal name.

© Taste of Kimchi, Elle        

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