What’s in a name?

The writer on how versions of a name can cause confusion and an identity crisis.

September 01, 2014 01:17 pm | Updated 01:17 pm IST

Having been asked to confirm the identity and qualifications of a foreign citizen who has lived and worked for many years in the United Kingdom. I drafted an appropriate letter. I had been asked to send in support a copy of the relevant page of my passport. Suddenly, as I was about to put both sheets of paper into an envelope, I realised that I might be encouraging confusion for the recipient. I had signed the letter, as I customarily do, “Bill Kirkman”. On the passport, my name appeared (as it always has) as “William Patrick”. To avert problems, I changed the line under my signature on the letter to “Bill (William Patrick) Kirkman”. I have to say that I am not usually faced with personal identity queries – and certainly I do not myself suffer from doubts about who I am. Why, I began to ask myself, had

I encouraged this kind of confusion, and why had I not taken steps to end it? The honest answer, I fear, is that is due to inertia. When I opened my first bank account, I simply did what seemed appropriate, and used my “official” name. So it has continued for about sixty years, and signing cheques “W P” has become a natural habit.

Over the years, it has not remained quite as simple as that. I have served as one of the signatories for several organisations, and being known in them as “Bill”, it has seemed natural to use that version of my name in my signature. The real question, of course, is why I had two versions of my name to start with. For the answer to that, I have to go to India, where I was born. My father, who at that time was ferry superintendent at Mokameh Ghat, in charge of a small fleet of ferries, arranged for the then Metropolitan Bishop of Calcutta to travel up the river to baptise me. As my father told the story later, he said that he would like me to be baptised “Bill”, at which the bishop demurred, insisting that we must use “William”. (As I was only about four months old at the time, I have no means of confirming that – but I see no reason to doubt it.)

William, therefore, it was, but over the years the name that became the most commonly used was Bill. When our elder son was born, we decided to give him the name “William”, and to use it without shortening it to “Bill”. We also gave him the name “George”, but as several other members of the family had the initials W G we decided to put George first. All went well until our son went to secondary school, where the immediate assumption was that George was the name by which he was known. As he by this time had decided that he did not like the name William, he enthusiastically adopted “George” – and so it has remained. For several weeks, of course, when school friends telephoned us and asked for George I had difficulty in not replying that no such person lived in our home.

Identity issues do not of course only concern names, and over the years most of us have been required to confirm our identity when dealing with financial or other matters. I experienced a good example of this when I was working as head of the Cambridge University Careers Service, and was also a churchwarden of our local parish church. I volunteered to collect a confidential box which the church kept, for security reasons, in a bank in Cambridge. The vicar wrote to the bank, confirming that I would be coming. When I arrived, and asked for the box, I was astonished when the bank official, peering from behind a grill, opened it, and passed the box to me. When I asked why he had not demanded proof of identity, he replied: “You were my careers adviser. I know perfectly well who you are.”

Accepting dual identity no longer presents me with any problems. I know who I am, and so do most of the people who need to. There is only one matter where I still have to think carefully whether I have got my name right. To some of my grandchildren I am “Grandpa Bill”, to the others “Granddad”. At least I do not also have to remember whether it is Bill or William – and that is something to be thankful for.

Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge, UK. Email him at bill.kirkman@gmail.com

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.