What's in a name?

What role does your name play in how successful you are?

What if your parents had a sense of humour while choosing a name for you?

Would a name that is difficult to pronounce be a deterrent for potential employers?

What about Asian names in Western culture and Western names in Asian culture?

Does having a 'weird' name or unfortunate name force you to be successful?


I would love to do a study on questions such as these.
Of course, I foresee some people calling it a total waste of time, but how else can I get the answers to these questions?

'Michelle' is a common name.
In fact, it's so common that very soon, no one would name their daughter 'Michelle'.
It's a cycle really.

I asked my parents... "Why 'Michelle'?"
Was it after someone successful?
Was it something to do with nostalgia?

They simply replied that it was because it was such a neutral name.

So I thought it through...

1. It's easy to pronounce (But still someone pronounced it 'Michilli', hence the nickname)

2. It's neutral in the sense that it allows me room for a whole lot of possibilities. It does not dictate my future nor is it a famous name that I am obliged to live up to. In that sense, it's a really flexible name. What I become as a human-being is all up to me... I can't blame any of my failures on my name. It's not an escape route, no blame-game. Hey... my parents were smart...

In any case, I've come to realise that I can't blame anyone for my name because I was the one who chose it... yes... at the age of a few days.

You can try guessing...

Did my parents dangle a whole lot of cards with names in front of me and wait for me to grab one?
Then I would most probably have chosen the flashiest card.

It goes like that...
I was in the ICU, having come out beautiful oxygen-deprived blue...
My Dad went in to pay me a visit.
At that point in time, Mom and he had not yet decided on a name for me (maybe they thought I would not have lived or something...)
They were favouring 'Melissa', 'Michelle', even 'June' (note: I was born in August) among others...
My Dad tried sounding out the names...
When he came to 'Michelle', I smiled.
Not once, not twice... but thrice!
So 'Michelle' it was.

It's a story I'm never sick of telling.

Maybe I'll write a book when I'm old and grey, when I've lived life fully, so I can tell the story of a name. A name that it common, a name that allowed a girl to choose her future, the name that is 'Michelle'...