RLA Bruce
RLA Bruce
Jul 22, 2017 · 1 min read

Everything isn’t about race or slavery; Scandinavian names such as Erickson or Johnson literally mean, “Son of Erick” or ‘Son of John.” In generations past those names identified and honored their fathers and didn’t mean anything about race or slavery; they merely indicated their family and lineage.

Nowadays no one pays much attention to names as an indicator of ancestors. My name comes from a church elder from France, who financed his coming to the New World with embezzled church money. I don’t honor that ancestor by keeping the name we share; it is just my name, a word-sound I am used to that identifies “me.”

An OB-GYN nurse I know said a black patient named her new baby girl “Timexia” because a clock on the wall was the last thing she noticed before she was put to sleep for a C-Section; there was no honor or significance in naming her baby after a clock — except to the mother — nor is there anything meaningful in making up an African name or using the name of a stranger whom you admire.

You can call yourself anything you choose, but the meaning to YOU is what you make of it, and it may have that meaning only to YOU.

    RLA Bruce

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    RLA Bruce