Wearing My Name Into Battle

Eero Saarinen. My parents named me after the Finnish architect who designed the St. Louis Arch. My name is an essential aspect of my identity that has affected me powerfully throughout the course of my life. Growing up with the name Eero is like growing up with a promise and a burden, a double-edged sword. It ensures that you can’t just blend in or merge into a collective unnoticed. From a very young age, people have always done double-takes when they heard my name. “Did you say ‘Eric’”, some would say. And almost every teacher was boggled by the spelling. However, it also attracted attention. People’s heads would turn when I said my Scandinavian name. I would spell my name for people even before I could read. My parents even joked calling me “Fake Finnish”.

This inadvertently thrust me into extroversion. My name also functions as a shield, absorbing the pressure of meeting someone new and finding common ground. This allows me to instantly connect with people and gives me time to gather my thoughts and steel my nerves while people are caught up in learning the pronunciation and the spelling of my name. My name has been a strong contributing factor in my personality. I figured that I had come into this world to make a statement and that continuing to confidently express my opinions, debate, and think critically would simply be living up to the name my parents chose for me.