Don't forget Winona.

Hello. My name is Winona. Yes. You read this right... Winona. Every time I introduce myself to someone new, their responses follow a similar pattern. "Wait what was that again?" Winona. I am called Winona. "Oh that is a really beautiful name. Were you named after someone?" Yes. My grandma. (If I am feeling particularly conceited I will tell them the long version... I was named after my grandma. She was named after a girl on my great grandpa's mission. My great grandpa served an LDS mission on a Sioux Indian reservation. This girl was in one of the families he taught). "I have never met anyone named Winona. What does it mean?" It means first born daughter. "Are you a first born daughter?" Well kinda... usually at this point I am done being the awkward center of attention so I find some way to stop talking about myself. My name provides me with a natural ice breaker where people can't see too much of my awkward too fast and run away, but just enough to make an impression. And since I have to repeat my name 56 times until people understand what I am saying to them they tend to remember it.

I will admit that there are a few downfalls... There are the times when people don't ask for me to repeat my name and they just nod and move on to the next question. That is when I start to hear the variations of my name. The most common variation is when people pronounce my name "WHY-nona." Which I do find comical but... my name is in fact pronounced wi-NO-na. (It helps if you say it in a British accent). I also have had people remember my name as "Willa" or "Winooney." Amazing. I know.


The majority of people I meet have never heard of my name. (Here is a song that most people know that says my name and you probably never even noticed). But I do get a lot of the country singer comments, shoplifting comments and the occasional I served my mission in Winona-- Missouri, Texas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Indiana, or Kansas. I feel so blessed to be named after my grandma Winona. She died a few years before I was born, and I am glad to be the one bearing her name in remembrance.

"Whats in a name? that which we call a rose 

By any other name would smell as sweet."

I don't know if I agree with you dear old bill. I'm pretty sure you had it wrong. I definitely wouldn't be as sweet or interesting if my name wasn't Winona.