Writing invitation - Write About Your Name

My name at birth was Anne-Marie Rachel Barnett. I'm named after my mother's mother, Anne-Marie. If I was a boy, I'd be Bruce Marc Barnett. When I married my husband I changed it to Anne-Marie Barnett Nichols. I like Nichols because it's smack dead in the middle of the alphabet. However, I don't like when people spell it Nicholas or Nickels.

Over the years my first name has caused some complications:

Spelling - Does Anne have an "e" at the end? Is it Annie, Anne, Ann, or Anna. Is it Marie, Maria, or Mary? A-N-N-E-M-A-R-I-E.

The Dash - Yes, it's hypenated even if my second grade teacher said that there wasn't a hyphen between Anne and Marie and corrected my handwriting assignment. When I told my dad what she said, he replied that my teacher was an idiot. Pretty powerful stuff to hear from your dad when you're only seven years old.

Pronunciation - Being French, my mom says it with an accent. Wendy, my best friend from high school, loved to mimic the way my mom called me to the phone, "On, Marrrrrrreeeeeee."

But when I say it, people think I'm saying "Ann Murray" like the singer or even "Emery" like the thing you file your nails with. Must be my Jersey accent.

Usage - My dad used to call me AM. In high school, my friend Todd called me Man Array (The M and A are switched. He used to also say, "Your banging on my halls, man." You figure it out.)

My best friend Suzanne's brother called me, Annie Marie as did a boss who I especially liked. But mostly people call me by my given name though "Mrs. Nathan's Mom" is coming into popular usage these days.

My husband calls me hun.

I introduce myself as "Anne-Marie Nichols." But people still say, "Nice to meet you Anne." Or "Hi, Marianne." Now I'm bad with names as anyone, but I tend to forget someone's entire name, not make up a derivative of it.

Folks, if you learn one thing about me, it's that my name is unequivocally

(Inspired by the writing invitation in chapter 6 of Lisa Garrigues's book Writing Motherhood: Tapping Into Your Creativity as a Mother and a Writer and taken from scribblings in my Mother's Notebook. See my children's book blog A Readable Feast for a similar writing invitation for children.)

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