Whats In a Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
      By any other name would smell as sweet..."


I recall the famous words of Shakespeare's Juliet when I think about names. In this particular scene where these lines were spoken, Juliet was arguing that an object's essence will remain unaltered regardless whatever name it owns. Why bother giving much importance to names? Does it matter if one is a Montague or a Capulet? After all, they're just names. We will still be who we are whatever name we bear. Like, if I were a Rowena or a Michelle or a Katrina or an Anna, I would still be, with all the same physical characteristics and personality, me,  right? Hmm. Perhaps. I wouldn't know since all my life I've been a Maria Celedonia and I don't know if I'd be any different if I owned another name. All I know is I could not think of any other name that would fit me most perfectly but the one given to me by my parents. Would I still be Cel if my name was Jennifer? This got me thinking, do we define our own names, or do our names define us? More so, are names really important and how does it impact our being?

How important are names? Well to begin with,its just first thing we ask for when we meet someone for the first time. It is the first thing we ask when we want to get somewhere. And like Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria, Edward and Bella (yeees... makabago na ako!), it is what we first desire to discover when we fall in love. Is a name simply a word or set of words to refer to us or is it more than that? If names were only as simple as that, the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet would have ended up on the comedy section of the national bookstore.


Social science studies have shown that our given names at birth bear substantial psychological weight. We live up to the names we were baptized in. We, unconscious or unconsciously, try to embody the meaning of our names. It plays a significant role in defining who we are. In fact, names are the very first thing that define our identity the moment we see light in this world. It identifies our gender and our family background and ancestry. It says a lot about our parents and what they value. Names such as Pristine, Prudence, Chastity, Faith define values our parents give importance. John, Mary, Matthew, Luke, Christian, Mark, Isaac indicate religious background. Some names are linked our own culture and nativeland  such as Johann Gebrauchsten, Margaux Delavoir, Abu bin Jabbar, Chi Feng Feng, Hamin Cho, Ricipriano Jose Silang, Yokoshina Matsuura. Sometimes, it may even indicate what decade you were born in. Like during the time of martial law and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, people named their children Benigno, after Benigno Aquino. I know because my kuya is one of the many Benigno's in his age group. I do not know if he plans to live up to the name, though. Kinda hard to die for your country, you know. Hehe.

 My whole first name is Ma. Celedonia. "Ma." means Maria. I've always find it kind of annoying when people would only say "Ma" and not the whole name because they don't understand that its an abbreviation. In my first grade class back in Singapore, during our roll call, my teacher,Mrs. Yong, always pronounced my name "Ma Ce...*some mumbles* Frengko"

"My name is Maria Celedonia Franco, lao shi (teacher)"

"Is there another name I can call you?", she asked.

"Maricel", I replied.

"Ok, Marissa!"

Gah. So annoying lah.


I used to be called Maria as a baby but my dad changed it to Maricel. Why did he have to change it? Look at what I've become now - a drama queen! Had they retained Maria, I would probably emulate the qualities of Mother Mary(weh!).  I shortened my nickname to Cel in highschool because my cousin told me Maricel sounded like a maids name. I'm not discriminating, ok. I just don't think anyone would ever dream of becoming one if there were an array of better possibilities.

As for name Celedonia, I got it from my great grand mother, impong Celedonia. There are only 2 living people I know who have the same name. One is my cousin, Ate Bunny, whose real name is Vanessa Celedonia; and the other is my Tita Fe, who's also known as Fe Celedonia. It comes to no surprise we share a lot of similar characteristics with our ancestral mother, Celedonia Torres Reyes. (well perhaps it may also come from the bloodline and genes). The three of us are dominant women, outspoken, temperamental, matatapang and both my cousin and aunt are very successful in their own professions - just like my great grand mother (I have yet to be successful in mine! Wah! Im so pressured!!!). Impo was a landlord or what you call a haciendera who lived in the time of Spanish, Japanese and American regime and lived to see the terror of World War II. It would be an understatement to say she was a brave and strong woman. She was orphaned at an early age, started out extremely poor, earned money on her own by selling simple food, then her business grew through time and then eventually acquired hectars and hectars of land, which I'm pretty sure is larger than Mufasa's savannah. She raised 9 children, one of which was my grandmother, Mamang, who was even able to take Pharmacy as a college degree (mind you, women did not go to college during those days) and my grandmother was able to raise 7 beautiful, loving children and the most saintly of them all is my mother (no I'm not biased, its true!). My grandmother was actually the one who insisted that I be named after her mother, Celedonia. My mom was supposed to name me, Rowena! Thank goodness my lola intervened!

I love my name. Its sounds rhythmic, melodic and easy to remember. Above all, its unique. No one else I know (outside my family that is) owns this name. I guess thats where my extra-drive to be different comes from. When most people chose MEco, I chose music. When most people graduate after 4 years in college, I graduate after 5 and a half years (hehe). Joke. I wish I acquired more of the values and characteristics of Impo though, like being very determined, disciplined, hardworking, God-fearing, courageous and rich. Scrap the last one, hindi pala siya value. But its something I definitely value and would really love to acquire from scratch. hehe. 

Ok, I think I'm rambling. Lets shift back to names. What inspired me to write this entry actually was my desire to find out the meaning of my name by googling "Celedonia name meaning". I found out the name is actually a German for Celidonia - a variant term for celandines. Im like, wth's celandines? I searched it and what came out was the flowers that greeted you at the top of this blogpage. Amazing. All this time, I didn't know. I feel a new sense of self identity. I feel so cheery, sunny and blooming! yun oh!! :))

I really do believe we live up to our own names. Thats why it is no surprise that parents choose the names of their children with great caution and consideration. Some people have to live their whole lives loathing their names and blame their parents for it. Some people change their own names just because they feel it doesn't fit them, like gays and transgenders. Some change because they want to become someone else and start anew.


With our country rooted from the name of a Spanish king who stole our land and human dignity, I wonder if there is anything to live up to other than colonial mentality, poverty, injustice, corruption and oppression. PNoy, how about considering changing our country's name, yes? That would probably be a good idea. Its far-fetched and many would disagree, but who knows, maybe a new patriotic name  would help to start a new identity for our country.