The story of Georgie

Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet. –Bob Marley

I’ve gone solely by Georgie for the past few years. I haven’t always been called Georgie, but it’s always been me. My parents have always called me Georgie, apart from when my mum is a little bit more than annoyed and calls me by my full name.

I have heard stories from people who changed their names because their names were just “not them”. Famously, television host Andrew Günsberg changed his name from Andrew to Osher. A lot of celebrities change their name once they become famous. I’m sure Elton John didn’t want to be known as Reginald Dwight, and Iggy Azalea didn’t like her birth name, Amethyst. But that aside, Georgie is more or less a nickname for Georgina.

The same way you’d call Nicholas, Nick; Timothy, Tim; Benjamin, Ben; Samuel, Sam.

The Georgie Porgie

The interesting story about my name is that I used to hate being called Georgie. As a child, I was bullied a fair bit for being short, having exceptionally long hair, being very quiet and shy, being a “nerd”, and befriending people smarter than me. Needless to say, the worst was when it came to my name. I got a few “Georgina the Hyena” among the lovelier “Georgina the Ballerina” – which was fitting, mind you, because I was indeed a ballet dancer.

The worst was probably “Georgina the vagina”, which proved that people were incredibly immature because not only did they deliberately say my name incorrectly, but they thought it was funny.

When people found out that Georgie was an acceptable nickname for me, and furthermore, heard my mother calling me by Georgie, they decided to tease me about it. My mum had written my preferred name as “Georgie” on the application form for one of the primary schools I attended. I didn’t know this until I found that I was being called Georgie for attendance.

I sort of wish I had accepted the name then; it would have stuck quicker, and people would have gotten used to it more easily. Alas, I was upset by the “Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie” nursery rhyme chants, with people suggesting that my name was a boy’s name, or that I was gay and liked girls.

I give up: The “Just Call Me Anything”

I disliked being bullied, because I felt rather worthless and wanted to change my name immediately. But I couldn’t imagine being called Crystal (the name I had wanted for so long), despite being insanely jealous of a girl in my class who had the middle name Crystal. At this point I felt I liked my middle name, Celestine, more than my real name, but I couldn’t imagine being called that either. It constantly ticked in my head that my parents would be upset if I didn’t want to go by the name they chose for me.

In high school, I insisted on being called G or Gina, because my name was too long for people to holler in the corridor. I eventually adopted the nickname Jazzmo, derived from my love for jazz music and punk/emo fashion. Throughout high school I adopted many ridiculous nicknames that didn’t pertain to my name, almost as if I wanted to hide, or was ashamed of, who I really was. It was during high school that I came out of my shell and actually became more outgoing and eccentric.

Be the change you want to see

I don’t quite remember when I wanted to stop being called Georgina, but I remember that at the end of high school I didn’t want to be called Gina. I remember buying the domain georgie.nu, because georgina.nu was not available, and after some time, writing my name as “Georgina” didn’t feel right. I had always supplied a nickname when I wrote about myself or introduced myself to people, and now I didn’t really have one.

I remember talking to Seb about our nicknames (it’s pretty obvious what his full name is) and told him that I would introduce myself as Georgie from now on. Funnily enough, the next day we were taking part in a research survey and bumped into some of his friends, whereupon I said, “Hi, I’m Georgina. I mean, fuck, sorry, I’m Georgie, I don’t want to be called Georgina anymore.”

The transition was a gradual one, I suppose. It wasn’t a sudden realisation, but I found myself quietly changing my social media profiles to reflect my “new” name. I was no longer jeorgina but I was georgiecel – embracing part of my middle name as well.

Love whatever you are called.

I outline this in my LZRGUN Manifesto [page no longer exists], but over time, I have learned to love whatever people call me. I now laugh at the bullies that called me silly names. I accept being called George, though I would certainly prefer Georgie. I get called GG, or Good Game (quite literally). My brother has always called me Cici, meaning “big sister”.

People still call me Georgina, and I flinch a little inside, feeling like that was a long-gone part of me. Other people are surprised that they are unaware of my full name, until they peek at my driver’s licence, or they are curious if I have a non-English name or if Georgie is actually my middle name.

Perhaps it wasn’t a big change at all – just a two-letter difference, really – but I think the story is in that I learned to love what I was called, and that I shouldn’t have cared if other people didn’t like my name. I love it, and it’s me, and it’s who I want to be.

Comments on this post

When I was in elementary school, I was constantly bullied (until after I won a Halloween pumpkin decorating contest and was picked to be one of the singers for a play). My principal at the time is Hispanic and he read my name as Jaime instead of Jamie. I would get furious about being called a Mexican name. I’m over it now, but back then, people would deliberately call me that to get a rise from me. Today, I still a little annoyed, but I get over it real fast. Mostly at Starbucks is where I hear it from.

Anyways, I wish I could change my name. I dislike my full name (First, Middle, and last) as my full name is popular. But what can you do when your parents decides to name you after two people they’re friends with? I wish I had a unique name like yours or something other than Jamie. I dislike my name. A lot of people like my friend Rhonda asks me why do I hate it so much? I tell them — “It’s too popular for my liking and it’s not unique.” Which is true. It’s not unique at all. I just don’t like my name period.

Apparently I was named after an actress, and I appreciate I wasn’t named after a criminal or something. :P At the same time I’m not a huge fan of who I was named after (Georgie Parker). I can understand you hate your name but I think it suits you! Most names grow on people.

I guess I do feel lucky for having a name that isn’t so common. When I was young and naïve and thought about what I might name my future children, I wanted them to have unique names like me. But what with the amount of celebrities naming their children unusual things, maybe common names like Jamie, James, Chris, Jess and Sam will seem more special, aye? ;)

I remember watching an interview on Iggy and I thought she didn’t like using her real name because it was “sacred.” It didn’t occur to me that she didn’t like it. It’s very unique and I would totally love to go by Amethyst!

For me, I personally get offended when I’m called K/Christina. I finally found the strength to correct one of my professors who continuously called me Kristina for several weeks. “IT’S KRISTINE!” I pointed out in class. I actually have two parts to my first name, which totally is a weird Filipino tradition because we use our mother’s maiden name as our middle name in official documents. So basically I’m Kristine Mae (first name) [Mom’s maiden name] [last name] in official documents. It’s long and annoying.

I have never ever been addressed as Mae before and I don’t think it suits me nor will I ever respond to Mae. I think I like my name Kristine, but don’t mind my official first name Kristine Mae.

I didn’t actually think about people getting my name wrong. I was too focused on why Georgie means more to me than it did before! I was often called Georgia, and I had to correct people. I can imagine the frustration you had with being called Kristina, haha.

I hadn’t heard about Iggy, I was just assuming that she may not have liked her name! Guess that’s an interesting viewpoint that she sees her real name as sacred.

As a writer, I think an awful lot about names. Almost too much. I spend lots of time on finding names for characters–one that sounds right, rather than what it means. Names, though they aren’t as unique as an email address or a username, are still reflections of self and of identity.

My last name is what gives me the most anxiety. I love my first name, and my middle name is just there and I have very little opinion on it. But I don’t like my last name (“o’Reilly” is not my last name; it’s a pen name chosen for its meter and rhythm with my first name hashtag nerd). I was bullied in school because I was overweight, and the bullies used my last name as part of their taunting, since they came up with some rhymes for it. Even on Facebook, where all of my friends know my last name, I have the first syllable of my middle name instead of my last name. There’s so much weight and association that comes from my last name. I’m the fourth of five children, so in my community, people know who I am based on the semi-unique last name. They go, “Oh, you’re an [last name]. I know your [insert one of many relatives].” It’d be nice to not have the ghosts of my family hovering around me, just because of my last name.

I’ve thought about changing my last name legally. I researched into it a lot around four years ago. Then I decided that, until I got married and stole my future-husband’s last name (my beau’s last name is beautiful and Italian, and I want it :P ), I’d just stick with my birth name on my official documents, and my pen name online. It’s made things easier.

I have a few nicknames. In public school, before I hit puberty and I played with more boys than girls, I was called “Cor-dor” and “Cor-dude” by the boys. My little brother occasionally addresses me by the Japanese version of my name–which is Koriru–but he and the rest of my family members (parents, siblings, aunts) normally call me Kirby and Corbbie, since my middle name starts with a B. Most of my nicknames outside my family, though, are just between one friend and myself. One calls me Rain; I call her Bow. Another calls me Moonpie; I call her Suncake. Another (who doesn’t know the aforementioned) calls me Moonshine; I call him Sunshine. I wouldn’t be surprised if my beau follows the Khal and Khaleesi from Game of Thrones and starts calling me “Moon of my Life.” :P

Aww, kids can be really mean about names. I’m pretty neutral about my name, and people do say it wrong all the time. I don’t get offended when they do though. People say it wrong so much, as long as it’s somewhat similar, I’d respond anyway. This actually caused a good bit of confusion at my workplace. People were debating how to say my name right because however way they say it, I answer. They all ended up coming to me to know the truth. :P

My full given name is Raisa Myrthle. I dropped Myrthle when I changed my name after I got married, and I don’t miss it at all. It wasn’t actually on purpose. For some reason, Social Security dropped it and I didn’t object. No one made fun of me as Raisa, but as soon as they find out about Myrthle, they start teasing me. I don’t even know why. And yeah, there’s an H because it’s apparently a Filipino quirk to add H’s to names.

I just realised I have the same issue with my last name (Luhur). People have said it wrong so much that I used to forget the correct pronunciation. Some of them have made their own derivations of it. At work, a lot of people have become accustomed to saying it with a French accent (le-huere) since one of my colleagues introduced me and said “you gotta say her last name correctly – Le-huere” (with “huere” exaggerated) as a joke. :P

I used to go by Lana when I was younger, as I despised being called Alannah. It was long and what my parents called me – not ‘cool’ enough for my friends to call me.

Georgina the vagina.. how creative. ‘Alannah the vagina’ and ‘Alannah the mangina’ doesn’t need the pronunciation changing.. it rhymes pretty much perfectly on its own. However, what was worse was when people found out that Lana backwards is ‘anal’. /ehh

Now I’ve grown up, I have a lot of different nicknames but I’ve embraced my given name and also my middle name. Different people from different times in my life call me different names. Commonly it is Lana, Lanabobs, Llama or Alan.

I usually tell people who spell my name wrong to just call me Alan, as it is a hell of a lot easier than spelling my name over and over again. /hehe – but that then sparker a rumour of me actually wanting to be a man. Not cool. 😒

I had no idea you didn’t like being called Georgina” anymore. :o If I had known, I wouldn’t have called you it after you switched to “Georgie”, but I’m also really bad with change, as well as names, so to have had to put those two together, it took some time. :s

I wince and cringe when people call me “Sarah”. When they call me “Liz”, I’m shocked because they got it right… I played around with “Liza” a bit last year and the year prior, but too many kept pronouncing it Lisa, Leeza, or Lizzuh, and “Liz” is just easier.

I’ll also be another one of the peoples who changes their name, but as a personal and development purpose, something my family feels very odd about, because it was given to me, thought was put into it, etc. But I feel names sometimes need to be changed, and people need to be able to choose for themselves what they will be going by, because sometimes names are associated with bad memories, or something someone just hates it.

:love: /eee

I updated your comment to remove the BB code. ;) I haven’t been on forums in a while!

Someone called me Georgina today, I couldn’t ignore it! I jokingly scoffed, but I just told that person I preferred to be called Georgie. I know it has taken people quite some time to get used to calling me Georgie, not just on the internet, but in real life as well. I guess we can understand each other when it comes to names. I’m not sure if I was correct, but in my mind I thought it was Lie-zah. I do, personally, prefer Liz. ;)

I thought about (and asked my mother about) changing my name legally to Georgie, even thought about modifying the spelling of my last name so it could be pronounced correctly. It should be Le-hoor, a bit French-sounding, and recently someone at work asked if it was Luhür, with an umlaut, which made the pronunciation clearer. I like the idea. But I guess “Georgina” isn’t much different from Georgie anyway, and my mum said it would be too much trouble to modify my details everywhere for such a small change. I know some people would be willing to go to all the effort, though.

Yes, it’s pronounced Lie-zuh. :)

I always thought your last name was pronounced Loo-her; I’ve no clue what sound Luhür makes. o.o

From what I’ve read for Texas, name changes require a petition and a court case. You have to argue the reason why you want to change your name. It’s really complex, but I guess it’s because otherwise, too many people would be trying to change their names all the time. It’s also around $300. :| And you have to make copies of your new birth certificate and the name change file and send it to everyone you can think of, otherwise you can actually commit fraud. It’s really scary, and there are lawyers you can hire for it, which I decided I’ll do, since said lawyer could also make sure everyone necessary receives my name change information. The social security, etc. stays the same, it’s just the name that updates.

So… yeah, it’s complicated. But I’m willing to do it to go from “Sarah Elizabeth Lawson” to “Jane Elizabeth Lawson”. :3

Haha, the umlaut (ü) extends the sound, so it’s more or less Lu-hoor, where the “lu” is short like the initial sound of the word “look”. I can’t think of a better example and I’m not sure my name rhymes with very much.

That sounds like a huge pain in the backside. In Australia it is apparently really easy to change your name. I think the government has tons of links across all their systems, so they find you out, whether it’s through the births/deaths registry, electoral roll, etc. My friend’s name was a long Sri Lankan name similar to Thuwaraahan, but he legally changed it to Waren, because that was how the latter half of his name was pronounced. Made things a lot easier for him and he was happy with it. I’m not sure what the fee is here. I can imagine a lawyer would save you a lot of time and hassle.

I feel like they are trying to decrease fraud in the first place, which is why they probably want some kind of reasoning for a name change.

I loved you story. My favorite name that I wanted to called when I was a child was Mary Ellen.
I was called George, GG, double G snd kids chanted The Georgie Porgie chant as well. I was glad someone else endured the same. I finally embraced my name!
Now I see some many
Georgie Girls. Take care, Georgi