Un-birthday Tribute to my Name Story

I have struggled with my name my whole life -- it's boring. I am the only person in my family not named for someone (some of my family members are named for two people).  My name is so common that I have met five other people with my same name -- first, middle, last.  It is short ... to short for a nickname, though there are always those who have something to add to it to make it nickname-y.  Not always my favorite thing to be called is what everyone always wants to call me ... my name and then a fruit.  The only interesting thing about my name is that it is a palindrome... not many can say that -- except for me, Otto, Bob, etc...

When I was young, I longed for a really long, vaguely exotic name like Francesca (but I could never figure out how to spell it).  Something you could shorten with purpose.  Hell, I would have taken Francisca, but my mother's very specific naming rules did not allow for this kind of a thing.  Mother's rule:  name in English but easily translatable to Spanish... thus my little sister was not allowed to be named Misty as my father wanted... what would we call her in Spanish...Brisa?

I don't know if I could ever have pulled off Francesca though -- she sounds tall and thin, smoking in the hallways, hair always done, makeup flawless, strolling casually in high heels.  I could not pull off any of that ... not one bit.

Beyond not having a name I would like, then I went to school with someone who had the same first and middle name as me.  The teacher did not want to have two people answering to the same name, so one of us had to go by the whole name ... the other one refused, so there I was first name, middle name in all its plain jane, named-after-nobody unglory -- for six years.

I don't even know who that first name middle name was ... no one else has ever called me that.  At home I am "mija" as long as I haven't pissed off one or the other of my parents.  It cuts down on mistakes, if not confusion, to call all of us mija/mijo.

And if I am not in the good graces, or they are referring in particular to me, they say my name in Spanish.  So, my name in Spanish is my family name.  Special, for my family only.  People outside my family never did -- until I went to Spain, Mexico or lived in New Mexico.  It took me some time to get used to hearing people (not my family) call my name in Spanish ... it felt intrusive and wrong, but then I gave up when I couldn't get the English pronunciation out of Spanish speakers.

Now I introduce myself in English, but I don't correct people who insist on calling me in Spanish -- so, am I who I answer to??