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Do you have a unique name?
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3 Kids, 80 Names (A Recital/Recountal)
We’re a Filipino family based in Texas. Last week, we went to the Philippine Consular Office in Chicago to avail of the new machine readable passports. I was told by the staff that the application papers of my three kids will be referred to the National Office in Manila before being processed. I was informed that the new passport can only accommodate 30 characters for a given name. My kids have 134, 151, and 300 characters in their given names. When I was processing our papers prior to our immigration to the United States, I had a hard time securing my kids’ authenticated birth certificates and applying for their passports. It took two to three years to process them. In their original birth certificates, my first two kids’ given names (20 each) appear as “(see attached).” The space provided in the official form wouldn’t suffice. In the case of my third kid, his given names (40 in all, plus a suffix) were typed in full on the top margin, overwriting the read-before-accomplishing portion. It’s good the agency that issues passports found a way to solve the name-game problem then – put one or two given names on the space provided on the inside front cover and the rest on Page 3. I hope they use the same formula on the current case. But talk not to me of Page Three controversies. It’s not us, uk? To make a short story long, the names of my three kids are: 1. Ramille Lewisse Marion To Kalon Zoe Vera Natalia Nadezna Zora Hosea Pro Patria Berenice Clotilda Currente Calamo Naomi Nahum Mehetabel A. San Juan; 2. Ramuel Spirituel Mattathiah Obadiah Darius Desiderius Abner Macaire Nowell Asa Izzy Zoon Politikon Trigg Gruffydd Keen Kemp Knowles Bonifacio Makabayan A. San Juan; 3. Ratziel Timshel Ismail Zerubbabel Zabud Zimry Pike Blavatsky Philo Judaeus Polidorus Isurenus Morya Nylghara Rakoczy Kuthumi Krishnamurti Ashram Jerram Akasha Aum Ultimus Rufinorum Jancsi Janko Diamond Hu Ziv Zane Zeke Wakeman Wye Muo Teletai Chohkmah Nesethrah Mercavah Nigel Seven Morningstar A. San Juan CCCII. To me, my children’s names are novels, not novelties. Each name has a story, often veiled in allegory. The names can be taken literally, interpreted figuratively, or understood anagogically. Suffice to say, to borrow the words of Margaret Atwood, “The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love."
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