For this post, I think I'll talk about names and naming things...
My name is Earla Jeanette Campbell Barreiro. It has lots of meaning to me. People who "go" by their middle names often have name issues. I have always hated going by my middle name. I wasn't sure why my parents didn't name me "Jeanette Earla." I mean, I know that doesn't seem to go together as well, but at least I wouldn't be that kid (usually the first weird name on the list) the teacher stumbles over as he/she reads it off the list. More than one teacher squinted at the paper as they tried to read my name, and my high school guidance counselor probably still thinks my name is "Carla." Earla is a different name, but my Papaw Cotton (my mom's dad) passed away six months before I was born. His name: William Earl. Since Earlene was already taken, I became Earla. I often wonder what my name could have been other than Earla based on Papaw's name. Willma? Wilomena? Earlgalina? Actually, if the Internet had been around then, Mom would have had a whole bunch of names related to Earl to choose from. One website lists Emma, Elise, or Eden as an alternative. Really, most of the time I'm happy they chose Earla. I just could never figure out why they would name me Earla and call me Jeanette.
Speaking of Jeanette, I know there are other people around with that name. They are just not in my age-group! Or at least in the area of the US where I grew up, anyway. I actually like the name Jeanette. One of the English teachers at my high school would pronounce it with a French accent. I thought that was cool. And there were a couple crazy girls in middle school who would sing, "Jeanette, the best a man can get" to the tune of the Gillete razor jingle popular then. I thought they were pretty clever at the time.
My last names (I've had two in my life time) also mean something. "She's a Campbell" is a phrase I heard off and on as I was growing up, and I still refer to myself in that manner from time to time. Wen you have as many siblings as me in a town as small as the one I grew up in, you get to be known by your last name pretty quickly. I didn't mind--I always loved my brothers and sisters. And later on when my nephews and nieces were old enough for school, I knew that teachers thought of me when they were told, "That one's a Campbell."
As for my current last name, Barreiro, I accepted that name on March 29, 2008 when I married my sweetheart, Adam. It was very important to him that I took his name as my own. Even on Facebook, Adam likes for me to be just "Jeanette Barreiro" without any other former last names attached. His name goes all the way back to a little town near Barcelona, Spain. But that is a post for another day.
For now, I'm just Jeanette. And that's enough for me!
