\u201cMom, tell me,\u201d Patricija presses close, eyes wide and round, \u201cdid Dad come up with THIS name for me?\u201d<\/p>\n
I meet her gaze and, even trying to recall\u2014\u201cwhich one\u201d\u2014I can\u2019t remember. \u201cPatricija\u201d seemed to suit him best.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what\u2019s wrong with your name?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so childish,\u201d she blurts out, as if it were \u201celementary, Watson.\u201d \u201cWhen I was little, it was fine, but think, Mom,\u201d my daughter continues, \u201chow will I look when I\u2019m like you?\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, I want to clarify what she means by \u201clike you,\u201d but all I manage to say is:<\/p>\n
\u201cNormal!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s normal?\u201d she sighs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what name would be right for you when you grow up?\u201d I ask, genuinely curious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u2026 at least something like Viktoria or something similar. Like Danut\u0117\u2026\u201d (that\u2019s her Grandma\u2019s name).<\/p>\n
I could have been surprised.<\/p>\n
But out of nowhere, my own childhood memories catch up with me.<\/p>\n
At school there were lots of Kristinas, a few Donatas, a couple Au\u0161ras.<\/p>\n
And the one Viktoria in the entire school.<\/p>\n
You think, \u201cThat\u2019s fine\u201d?<\/p>\n
No way, bro. Terribly not fine!<\/p>\n
At the start of my life, I would have given anything if someone had allowed me to \u201cswap\u201d that Viktoria for, say, Krist\u0117.<\/p>\n
And then along came \u201cViktaryt\u0117\u201d and \u201cVikaliukas\u201d\u2014and things got even worse.<\/p>\n
Viktaryt\u0117\u2014like \u201clittle silly,\u201d and Vikaliukas\u2014like \u201clittle poop.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t help at all that my parents and everyone else seemed to agree that this was the QUEEN\u2019S NAME!<\/p>\n
Supposedly, I should feel some kind of crown\u2019s weight, \u201cwearing\u201d such a name.<\/p>\n
But no aristocracy ever pressed on my young shoulders.
\nI just wanted to be \u201cKrist\u0117.\u201d Period.<\/p>\n
The good news is, elephant-sized dissatisfaction with your own name slowly fades with the years.<\/p>\n
Even when \u201cmagic spells\u201d to convince your parents to change it to \u201csomething more normal\u201d fail.<\/p>\n
Do you have any stories about your own name?<\/p>\n
Mua,
\nV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-17776","istorija","type-istorija","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istorija\/17776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istorija"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/istorija"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}