My name is Keysha Yokayra Lopez Alcantara. Yes, as you can see, it is very long. But behind that names are nice stories and reasons why I have it. In the beginning, my grandmother wanted her to call me Rocio because hers, two of her granddaughters, had natural names like “Nieves” which in English means snow, and my other cousin is called “Lluvia” which means rain in English. My grandmother wanted to put dew on me because it was like a compliment to rain, snow, and dew. But unfortunately, my mom never liked that name for me. My mom always liked the name Keysha because it was a name that was very similar to hers. My parents agreed because my first name does not look much like my father’s, so they decided to give me Yokayra as my middle name. Yes, I know that nowadays middle names are not used but I love my name. I received a lot of criticism from many family members because they say that Yokayra is a very long name. but I really like my name. Although nobody calls me by my middle name a lot, only people who know me well know my middle name. I like to have the names my parents gave me. I remember that when I got here to the United States they said my name wrong and they still do it because of the pronunciation. because my name sounds totally different in English than in Spanish. and I like it much more in Spanish. every time someone says my name wrong I like to correct it because I like to be called by the name that my parents gave me.
I know the importance of a name but in my opinion, I don’t think a name can identify you, because nowadays there are many people who don’t like their name. They grow up with the name that their parents gave them and last with a name that they are not comfortable having for years. Behind each name comes a story and that has to be repeated. The irony of my story is that my mother named my sister Elysha and when we arrived in this country I had my first pet named Alysha. as you can see they have the same ending with the “Sha” Elysha, Keysha, and Laysha. Behind my name, many more names of my Family members were created.
Honestly, I love your name too! It’s so beautiful. In high school, I had a friend named Shabnam Yasmin por Alizadeh Falahkdeh, and I memorized it (and even how to write it in Arabic) because it was so long and beautiful and my name is just Carrie Lyn Hall, which I thought was so short and white bread and boring. Not that your name is Arabic, but it’s almost like a whole long poem! Now I do kind of like my name for its own reasons. But I still love those long beautiful names.