what's in a name?

So it's a typical Tuesday morning, me hitting the keys of my laptop before anything else and so I started chatting with whoever is online. Carl is one of those online people so we were chatting and suddenly the topic on nicknames came up. Apparently back home he has a very different nickname from his real name.  As in ang layo, ni isang letter yata walang parehas! hehehe.

It made me think about my own name. Jeliene. Seriously, when you first saw how it's spelled, how did you read it? I've been called by so many different ways that sometimes I'm even confused myself on how it should be read!

So let me tell you a story about my name...

According to mama, when she found out she's having a baby girl, finally after three rowdy boys, she started choosing for names fitting for the much awaited princess (ok, fine so dinagdag ko lang yan about being a princess! :P) She said at the end, she had her final three... Hehehe, let me share with you what those names are... One is a fairly common name, "Abigial", (buti na lang not this one, kundi kapangalan ko yun ate nun ex ko di ba... :D) The other one is supposedly a "chinese-sounding name" to go with my authentic chinese surname... "Michico" yata yun or something like that... Now if you ask me that's more like a japanese name... Awwww.. sana pala yan na lang to go with my turning japanese mode these days :D

But the winner is... Jeliene! :D Hahaha... Ayan. Guess where they actually got the name??? Do you know the dancer (yes the dancer, as in yun mga sumasayaw!) named "Geleen?" Honestly I don't know the correct spelling but it's completely different on how I spelled mine. Mama said that sounded nice so I think she asked somebody to re-spell. :P

Ever since I was old enough to understand words coming from somebody else's mouth, I've heard tons and I mean tons of different versions on how my name is pronounced... On how it's spelled? That's a completely different story, mas masaya yun :D

Now let me tell you the truth behind how my name is pronounced.

At home, the way they all call me is pronounced as "je-len." awww... parang bisaya di ba? Papa and one of my kuya always always refer to me as "Len." Now, mama... when she's irritated with me, will start calling me "je-le-ni."

When I was in third grade, I transferred schools. I was very timid back then (pramis, as in, maniwala ka na lang) so I remember distinctively this is where I started going by how I'm called today "je-lyn." You see my english teacher, Mrs Gonzales, was our homeroom teacher so she was the first person ever to read my name out loud that particular June morning. Hehehe. Out of fear or how ever you describe that knot in your guts during first day of classes in a new school, I couldn't help but agree when she called my name and said, "Je-lyn Siao. Did I pronounce your name right?" I swear I cringed when I heard that. But choosing to remain silent than correct her, I simply smiled and nodded. So there you go. :D

But I'm not done yet. Ahahaha.. :D

So I started answering to two different versions of my name. But for some reason, it grew old on me. I hardly recognized that it was the case. My ears adapted to the sound, though those two sound different. But the thing is, I still didn't have a nickname.

Then high school came. One day out of boredom, me and my friends started concocting names on how we'd call ourselves. Maricris became Macky, Eloisa became Aice, Joanne Paula became Chiosa, Faye became Nikki or Ynnie... and so on. They had me stuck at "Jhel" (at the time, kailangan may H talaga.. hehehe)

In college? I was plain "Je-lyn."

In my first work at Philam? I started going by San-chai... ahahha! :D (just kidding, though one of my office mates really did call me that when I started watching Meteor Garden.) The rest still called me "Je-lyn."

Now when I entered the call center at Sykes, my goodness... I started answering to different names... There's "siaoje," which is how I logged on my PC back then (user name ba?!). Some just decided to cut my name until the first syllable only and started calling me "Je." Others decided to include the next letter, thus, "Jel." Then everybody started calling everybody else "Ate" or "Teh." There are some more names that escape my memory now but it's either those or "Je-lyn."

Now when we started in Chase at Philam Tower and I met Jhopet he decided to make my name more fun and chic... So he started calling me "jels" and it caught on with some of my closest friends at the office now and frankly this is my favorite among all those other names! So since then when a new acquaintance will ask me for my nickname, I tell them "jels."

At least all those nicknames are actually derived from the original spelling of my name. Unlike some people I know... Jhopet from Ryan, Jason from Scepter and Tony from Carl...?! Ang layo, mehn!! :D

Now, on how my name is spelled... Ahahaa! just kidding! I didn't realize ang haba na pala ng blog na ito.

So I'm stopping here. :D