Names are not what we are given...

Names are what we call ourselves.

Around last year, I had decided to change my surname. It was a decision I and my brother actually agreed on; we wanted to be different from our extended family — cousins and uncle. So instead of bearing our grandfather's name, we were gonna start bearing our father's actual name.

So, I would be changing from Eunice Okoye, to Eunice Onyibo.

(My Dad's name is Onyibo and it means ‘a companion’. Okoye has no literal meaning— but it makes reference to a male child born on Oye market day, according to the culture of Igbo people)

So, I began telling people about it. Then my good friend reminded me "Eunice, but you've always loved your name..."

I replied "yeah, I did. But I think it's better this way".

What happened?

I figured out shortly that my mind only answer to 'Eunice Okoye' and can't even register ANYTHING ELSE. It was damn too alien to my brain.

I've had this habit of writing my name anywhere, very often— on paper, on walls, in the sands...e.t.c . I've built that for years.

And when I tried to write my 'going on new name', I find myself writing my same name all over. It was like I was hypnotized.

That was when I discovered something about names: Names, are not what was given to us. Names are what we call ourselves — what our minds we answer to.

For some people, it's easy for their minds to change, for others, it isn't.👌

Just like our brain has a language in which it interpreted things to us in, our identity could create a form or thing it identifies with — this same thing happens with our names.

This is why is surprises me, how do most women easily change their names after marriage? How do they construct this new form or title to answer to?

I used to think it was because I was Igbo, and that I loved the name and that's all. Then, I discovered it was a because of just me — my brain and the identity it has taken in the name.

The name Billion Shades Girl, isn't my name, it's like a nickname (those kinds formed out of someone’s unique character or abilities.— it's an expression of who I am. Billion Shades Girl is the meaning of Eunice Okoye. Eunice Okoye is the original word. I started referring and presenting myself as B.S.G, as a form of personal brand awareness .

So, I have a question for you dear reader?

Can you relate? Share how please?

And then, what is your name ? what is the meaning you take from your name?

It would be exciting reading about them!