What's in a Name?

I should have been Rick Higuera.

No, I was not raised by foster parents--my parents are my real parents. The truth is, my grandfather apparently did not like his last name. It must have stank of ethnicity to him. Maybe he was teased and tormented by kids and sick of the segregation that existed in California as he was growing up. Whatever the reason, he decided to change his last name to something "generic" and more American-sounding, and he chose Williams.

During my younger years I never gave it a second thought, but as I got older I grew to dislike my last name. It had nothing to do with my heritage. It had to do with how it rolled off the tongue when I said it out loud. It's hard not to say it without sounding like I'm slurring. The only people that I ever routinely hear pronounce it correctly are those with British accents, and because I live nowhere near Great Britain I hear very few of those. The British add the required accentuation to the "L" sound when they say it. My poor tongue does not do the double L crisply. I think I would much rather have the last name I was denied. Rick Higuera. Yeah. Or maybe Ricky Higuera. It sounds like a baseball player doesn't it? Although it sounds funny to me when I say it aloud or see it written, that really should have been my last name.

The more I think about it the more I like it.