I struggled to understand why my parents decided against being original when choosing my name. I mean, I’m one of 68,350 baby girls born in the 2000s who share my name in the United States alone (“Popular Baby Names”)! “Ewe” is its meaning, and that’s arguably the worst part about it (Duddy). An ugly barnyard animal? Come on. Even the Bible has nothing great to say about Rachel, who becomes an image of “tragic motherhood” and, after failing to conceive for so long, eventually dies in childbirth (Frymer-Kensky). Her life is frustrating throughout its entirety and ends poorly; what am I to expect for mine? 

However, some things will annoy me more than my given name ever will. “You look like a Hannah,” is what I’ve been told too many times, and I’d rather go by “Little Rachel” every day for the rest of my life than be mistaken for something else. What makes me look like a Hannah? What could I possibly do to seem more like a Rachel? Regardless of my feelings towards my name, my mom and dad wrote it on my birth certificate because they found it fitting for me! It’s the name that I’ve been given and have decided to stick with, and I’d like for that to be respected at the very least. 

If there’s any real positivity in having my name, it’s that the nicknames are endless. “Rach” and “Rachie” are ones that I hold dear to my heart, and “Chel” is a fun one my friends have recently adopted. Honestly, I adore all of these names because they were given to me by the people I love; they will never be “just a nickname” to me. I’ll always think of my sister, Thea, when someone calls me “Rack,” or my lifelong best friend, Ella, when I hear “Raquel,” the Spanish translation of my name. While I may not love the meaning behind my name or the seemingly endless comparisons to my aunt, it has allowed me to create personal connections with so many of the people whom I now cherish and love so much. Each nickname offers a memory, and to me, that's more powerful than any negative feelings I hold toward my name. I love my name when it’s not my name, and for this reason, I wouldn’t want to be called anything else.

Works Cited

Duddy, N. (2024) Rachel, Rachel - Baby Name Meaning, Origin and Popularity. Available at: https://www.thebump.com/b/rachel-baby-name (Accessed: 11 February 2024). 

Frymer-Kensky, T. (1999) Rachel: Bible, Jewish Women’s Archive. Available at: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rachel-bible (Accessed: 11 February 2024). 

“Popular Baby Names.” Social Security (2024) Top names of the 2000s. Available at: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names2000s.html (Accessed: 11 February 2024).