My full and legal name is Linda Ellen George Jerome Brown. Each of those names brings along with it so much emotion and history. I don’t use all five names, and never have, but over the years I have been known by one combination or another.
Linda, meaning beautiful in Spanish was the name chosen by my father when I was born. As a Latin man, his family from Bermuda, he had a special place in his heart for his baby girl.
Ellen was my mothers maternal grandmother. She came to America around 1880 with her husband John, from Sheffield, England and settled in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. As a widow she lived with my Mom’s family until she died around 1938. The story goes that she was bed ridden and my grandfather had to carry her to the bathroom.
George is what I was called through high school and all the years I was in the Navy. In fact, often friends would call me Linda George, as if it was one name, instead of just Linda. At times I think George was quite fitting for me. I didn’t mind it and was a bit proud of my name. That wasn’t always the case in the past. My father wore that name as well, but when he was a child his older brothers were both quarantined for contracting Leprosy and their family was ostracized and rejected in their community and their school. The George Boys were known country wide and were in fact written about in Time Magazine in 1925. I imagine the name George at that time was a burden. I have chosen to embrace the name.
Jerome brings bad memories to me since I married my first husband and he let me down as a man, as a friend, as a husband and as the father of my only son. Now, my son wears that name as do three of my grandchildren and they all make me proud so the negativity is starting to wane.
Brown has become my new name. I stand proudly next to my husband who shares that name with me. When I first became Linda Brown I resisted, too boring, too normal. We were in Ojai shortly after we were married and I saw a beautiful painting. The signature in the bottom right was signed Linda Brown. I thought it was a bit dull but then I decided if she was willing to take the name, I could, too. Now I am proud to have found my true and lasting name, a writers name, Linda George Brown.
