What’s in a NAME?

The ‚Trilogy About the End of the World, Part 1: About what is important‘ is all about Karen and her journey from Abu Dhabi to Hamburg. She sets out as Karen, but when she arrives in Hamburg, she has mysteriously turned into Elle.

Mysteriously? Not so. On her journey through landscapes devoid of people, she eventually runs into a group that makes her feel uncomfortable. When asked about her name, she does not want to tell. ’Make up a new name‘ the imp on her shoulder tells her, but she is stumped and cannot think. She looks around and sees a car with a huge ‚L‘ sticker and she blurts out ‚my name is L‘. This turns into the much more meaningful Elle that continues in the story.

Menno, her husband, changes his name to Hunter. Menno, in German, is a term used to express something like a little aggrevation. It is also used by sulking children. It is supposed to be from the French ‚mais non‘ (‚menno, I dropped it again‘). So Menno never liked it. In the new reality, he starts off as a hunter gatherer, setting up the stores with Elle. He also is the go-to for anybody who needs something repaired, so folk start calling him Hunter.

But really, what’s in a name? My name is Esther. Always has been, always will be. Through circumstances, adoption, marriages and such like, I have been known under all sorts of family names. Has this changed me? Maybe at times it has, who knows?

I write as Esther Jacoby: the name I had as baby Esther. A name I feel close to, even though I didn’t carried it since before school. In my other (professional) life, I am known under a different name, and that is okay. Sometimes I ask myself, which is the pseudonym? – A question as yet without answer.

In a world that is tipped on its head, what name would you like to be known as? Would you keep yours?