I’ll do this 30 day meme because it allows me to talk about my favorite subject: ME!
My middle name is Tamara, which is a name that reminds me of my childhood. My parents couldn’t agree on a name for me so my mom got to choose the first one (Flavia), which is the name of a very small Roman settlement in Galicia (North of Spain, where my mother was born). The place had some ruins that Rosalia de Castro (a seminal Galician poet) mentions, “Iria Flavia”. And that’s the name my mom wanted to give me.
My father, on the other hand, wanted to name me Tamara. So finally, they agreed on Flavia Tamara. However, here is the thing: my mom always called me by her preferred name, while my father called my his.
So, Tamara reminds me of my dad growing up. Tamara, Tammy, always calling my name. My dad who has been dead for more than two decades and the awesome times we had when I was a child. And how stubborn they both were with their reluctance to accept the other’s name for me.
Nowadays, I live in The Netherlands, where many Dutch people have troubles pronouncing or writing my first name (the letter v is pronounced as a soft “f” so they tend to write “Vlafia” when they hear my name) so sometimes, to make everyone’s life easier, I use Tamara. Less confusion, less explanations.
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