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The Shape of a Name
The Shape of a Name
by Andrew Mojares
Up, down, through. This could really apply to almost anything: airplane navigation, obstacle courses, an oversimplification of the children’s story, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen. But, among those many things, it also provides directions for how to write the capital letter, ‘A’: up, down, through. In 2004, I was one of hundreds born in Michigan sharing the name Andrew (“Popular”). A few years later, I was learning how to write it. Had I been born just two minutes later, I would have been practicing my C’s instead. My parents named me and my twin brother alphabetically: the first one, Andrew; the second one, Christopher. Time truly sealed my name's fate.
When I first looked up the meaning of my name, I remember exiting out after clicking on that first link, hoping to find a different answer. Much to the dismay of my nine-year-old self, when you type in “origin of the name Andrew” and hit “search,” words like ‘manly’ and ‘masculine’ appear highlighted across various websites. The name derives from the Greek name Andreas, which in turn is derived from the Greek word, andreios. Translated to English, the definition of my name is rooted deep within themes of masculinity, which I find to be quite ironic (Campbell). Despite identifying as male, I tend to fall well outside the bounds of what’s generally considered masculine – much quieter and softer than what might first come to mind. I don’t mean to imply that maleness and masculinity are synonymous, but based on personal experience, if I were to be placed in a room full of guys (even if they were all named Andrew), I don’t think I would feel very comfortable.
Maybe that’s why I like the shape of my name so much: I like how it looks when I sign it on a test, an envelope, a medical document. In many ways, the way in which I write my name is a better reflection of me than the meaning itself. Curly, loopy, kind of bouncy. Out of the hundreds of other Michigan-born Andrews out there, I wonder whose signature looks most like mine. I wonder if we’d be friends.
Works Cited
Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, origin and history of the name Andrew.” Behind the Name, 29 May 2020,
https://www.behindthename.com/name/andrew.
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