My name is the most annoying part of my childhood. From the ages of 2 to 10 whenever someone would write my name, it would always come out as Lexie or Lexy, but never Lexi. I never found Lexi key chains, mugs, or bike license plates. Alas, I was the one kid sifting through all the souvenirs looking for the simple four letter name. Unfortunately, this was only one of the bad aspects of my name.
Being one of the 25 Jewish families in a graduating class of 300 people it is important for my family to maintain our Jewish heritage, and one of the most important parts of my family heritage is my name, Alexandra. Although this name that I am supposed to identify is so significant to my family I feel like a person’s name should be original and make her feel like she stand out. Yet the fact that I carry an ancestor’s name with me has kept me form legally changing my name. My greatest goal in life is to be a unique person with an equally interesting name.
My “name envy” began in pre-school. While the teacher could easily spell names like Julia, Nina, Danny, and Sam, she could never correctly spell Lexi. No matter how many times I tried to say I was Lexi, nobody was able to grasp the spelling of my name. Therefore, I was forced to be someone I was not, Lexie.
I began attending Sea Cliff Elementary School where I was the youngest, smallest, and most adventurous person in my grade. While other kids sat around at playtime and created a picture, I would lead the “Imagination Section” where kids would make up their own games and theater productions in twenty minutes. On the top of my skit sheet Lexi was properly spelled for the first time in five years.
As I grew older questions were posed like: Why did you change your name? Why did you choose Lexi? How does Lexi have anything to do with Alexandra? Why did you choose such an odd spelling of your name? I answered these questions one by one in my own unique way, with a different response each time. Since I was unclear as to why I changed my name due to the fact I have been Lexi my entire life.
After second grade I began to become my own unique person and I began to discover that I didn’t want to be a prim and proper girl with the name Alexandra. So, I learned how to show my ideas and succeed in the classroom. In second grade I was chosen to lead the lunch-line, in third grade I was chosen to lead the reading passages, in the fourth grade I was chosen to lead group discussions, and as I grew older I kept on adding to my name and what it represents. I was learning how to be a leader.
Now I am proud when a substitute teacher or new teacher calls the name Alexandra Stoff and I insist on being called Lexi. When the substitute has to ask how to spell my name after five minutes of debate, I feel I am adding a new word to there vocabulary. So as I grow to be an independent woman, and continue to develop my own unique self, I will have to choose between the names Alexandra and Lexi and which name most represents me, but for now I will continue to identify and discover myself…. and most of all be unique.
