What's in a name?
At the desk, 7:40 a.m.
I never liked my name Claudia. It was a focal point of my humiliation in elementary school. I was Clod, dirt Clod, dirty Clod, Clod-hopper, and the list goes on and on. It's funny because there was another Claudia in my elementary school class who never received the brunt of this. But I did.
At the time, I couldn't comprehend that the kids teased me because I was different, and to their primitive minds, different was bad. To me, it was a name problem. If I had a better name, a different name, I wouldn't have this trouble.
My father and I argued about my name a few times. He had always liked the name. It was his turn to name a child and that's the name I got. My mother would inform me that I was lucky I didn't get my grandfather's name (Pierson) as that's what he wanted to name me. (Don't bother asking the - why would your grandfather name you? - and other logical questions, there's no logic or sanity to much of what my mother said.) Arguing with my father was dangerous at best, so I usually let it drop.
But I never felt like Claudia.
All of my clothing had this little tag sewed in the back of it that read : Miss C Christian
You see all of my sister's first names started with C's as well. Clothing was purchased for my older two sisters and passed to me with a tag that said Miss C Christian in the back.
That's who I was! I was Miss C Christian! That's a name I could live with - no Claudia there.
Of course, no one was going to call me Miss C Christian. But I knew who I was. I was Miss C Christian. That's me!
And so around the internet, you'll find that I have accounts under the name "Miss C Christian". Pinterest, for example. I asked the husband once if that bothered him and he couldn't think of a reason to care.
Some day I'll write more about all of the names I have: CHC, CHiC, Claudia Hall Christian - and naming people for a living (which is one of the main tasks as an author) but for now, suffice it to say, if you see a Miss C Christian on the Internet, it's likely to be me. I sewed that tag in the back of that account to claim it for my own.
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