My White Parents Gave Me a Black Name
My name is Jevin. It used to be Jevon.
This is a story of how I changed my name.
My parents were having a hard time deciding on baby names. My grandma saw an interesting name inscribed in Bobby McFerrin’s book, Don’t Worry, Be Happy (based on the popular song). It was dedicated to his son, Jevon McFerrin, whose name is pronounced Jeh-von (Jevon McFerrin, by the way, is a total badass actor/comedian and an awesome namesake).
However, when my grandma proposed the name she pronounced it like “Kevin with a J” (Jeh-vin).
This is made even more interesting because Jevon (Jeh-von) is the common spelling and pronunciation for an African American name. My parents, grandma, and I are all white. I wasn’t aware of the racial implications at the time, but thinking back, my name was culturally appropriated. By mispronouncing the name, my family “whitified” the sound, but not the spelling.
My parents went about pronouncing the name the “wrong” way, and when I started going to school everyone pronounced it right, but it was wrong to me.
I corrected people constantly and it drove me nuts. At the time, I remember being frustrated by every teacher reading out my name wrong in school and kids making fun of me (maybe because my first impression was pretentiously correcting…
