“It's the word that you use the most often and the soonest to describe yourself, and yet nobody's really ever talked about how it kind of makes me feel like this.” Until Duana Taha, who, after a lifetime of feelings about her own unique name, became the Name Therapist.

Duana offers advice on how to name your baby/future adult, so their name works shouted across a playground, whispered into an ear, scribbled on a coffee cup. She also deals with your concerns about being named after a relative or parent’s ex, having a name that elicits playground taunts, or doesn’t describe you as an individual at all.

It’s name season at the Allusionist, and if you’ve changed your name and would be willing to talk about it for an upcoming episode, please record yourself for a minute or so answering the following two questions:

Why did you change your name? Why did you choose the name you chose?

As this is for public consumption, you only need to use as much of your current or former names as you’re comfortable with me airing on the podcast. Record yourself using phone voice memo or whatever means you have at your disposal, then email your recording to allusionistshow@gmail.com. Thank you! I love hearing you listeners on the show, and I am endlessly fascinated to hear your opinions about your names.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:

Cool new Allusionist T-shirts and tote bags await at theallusionist.org/merch!

THANKS TO TODAY’S SPONSORS:

SQUARESPACE. Design your website at squarespace.com/allusion, and use the offer code ALLUSION to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. BOMBAS. Shop for expertly engineered socks at bombas.com/allusionist and save 20% by entering the offer ALLUSIONIST in the checkout code space.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:

gynarchy