View Message

As you can clearly see, this is my own real name. I didn't even know it had any negative connotations until I was in third grade (I'm going to be a junior in college this fall, so that was a pretty long time ago), when a boy in my class picked on me about it, saying he'd read in a dictionary that my name meant "a broken down old horse" or something. I was even more stunned when I clicked onto the comments section about my name and saw that it had even more negative connotations, including slutty or whorish. Someone even commented that it was very white trash and low class. Well, what my mom told me years ago is that she decided to name me Jade after Brooke Shields' character in the movie Endless Love (which came out about seven years before I was born; I was born on November 12, 1988), because she personally thought that Jade was a really beautiful name and said that if she ever had a daughter, that she'd name her Jade--and when I was born into this world prematurely (about a couple mos. early), that is exactly what my mom did. I honestly don't think my mom ever knew about any of the negative connotations about my name, or maybe she would've reconsidered (she was actually just as shocked as I was when I told her about what that boy had said back when he'd teased me, which is why she explained to me why she named me what she did in the first place). (My dad had also suggested naming me Michele Romaine, but my mother decided on Jade Michele.) And I really don't think my mom would've ever named me something that apparently represents trash or trashiness to so many people. But, despite all the negative things some people see, I do love my name and I definitely do not think of it as lower class, slutty, whorish, trashy, or any other negative connotation that people can think of. Because I also certainly am not any of those things myself. When people who know me say what they think of me to others, they usually say that I'm very shy and soft-spoken (which I totally am), sensitive, considerate, loving, sympathetic, and very intelligent. I personally try to think of those things about myself and the positive meanings of my name (especially that jade is a precious gemstone, something very beautiful) instead, and be glad that most people who think of my name think of it as something very beautiful (my LIT 2932 professor at college even complimented me on how lovely she thought my name was, saying it was valued in the Chinese culture).

---

-Jade