Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, 1974 (Paramount Pictures)

Today on the homepage, I have a piece about a very personal, very sensitive issue: names. The piece is called “A Name of One’s Own.” I begin with “Beto” and go on to many other names and personalities, in politics and out. Are you content with your name? Many people aren’t. And self-reinvention, as I say in this piece, is as American as apple pie. Jimmy Gatz of North Dakota to Jay Gatsby of West Egg! America has long symbolized new starts, new chances, which often include new names.

Of course, this is (at least) as old as the Bible: Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Saul to Paul, etc.

I thought I would publish a letter, from a longtime reader and correspondent, Noel Pixley. (I do so with his permission, of course.)

Such an interesting subject. I think about it a lot, as in, Could one have been an icon of the western genre as Marion Morrison [John Wayne’s original name]? I myself have a name that I have always disliked: Noel. It’s impossible to enunciate. The more you try, the more nasal it sounds. I travel a fair amount and in no other language is it pronounceable in fewer than two syllables. It’s always some form of No-ELL, which, of course, gives it that nice feminine quality that every man desires. To complicate matters, I didn’t even know my name until I was eight years old. My parents were hippies who, in 1975, moved us to San Fran, where I was known as Chakra. My surname goes back to the first Pixley on these shores in 1662, which I find cool, not in a primogeniture way, just as a connection to history. But that’s the real nut of it: Americans are not tied to their names in any way that holds them up or back (for the most part), and that is part of the “miracle,” as Jonah puts it.

In my piece, I quote Ted Cruz (my old friend), who changed his name in junior high. As he relates in his autobiography, he had a conversation with his mother one day, and she said, “You know, you could change your name.” Ted says he found this “a shocking concept. It had never occurred to me that I had any input on my name.” Well, one does.



As a rule, I believe we should call people by the name of their choice, in the pronunciation they prefer. We could think of exceptions to this rule, as to any rule, or most of them. But …

Anyway, this is a juicy topic, I find. Again, my piece is here. And if you have some name stories or thoughts you care to tell me, try me at jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.