My Name

Ruth is a brown word. It means compassion, but it sounds like September and earth and the color of my skin. Elizabeth is a fancy word. It brings to mind queens and duchesses who wear dresses and sip soup out of the sides of their spoons. Key is a professional word. It represents responsibility, holds a hint of mysteriousness, and has the potential to open something amazing. All these things come together to make Ruth Elizabeth Key. REK, that’s me. However, I do not see myself in my name as it rolls off my tongue.

            I was almost named Sarah, which I would later favor in naming my dolls. My parents could not decide between rosy pink Sarah and earthy brown Ruth. Then, one day, as my father was coming home from work, just before I was born, a truck pulled in front of him and almost knocked him off the road. He tried to pull around it, but the truck moved over again, blocking his way. Trapped behind the enormous vehicle, my father, with nothing else to do, stared at its filthy rear. There, written in the brown mud were the words ‘My Name Is Ruth’. My parents called it a sign from God and gave me the name I would forever represent.

            My name comes from the Bible; all my siblings’ names do. Ruth was a young widow who refused to leave her mother-in-law and go back to her own people. She later met her second husband as she was picking the golden brown wheat in his fields. His name was Boaz and her son’s name would be Obed. They are such strange names next to the simple, common Ruth. I often wonder if she ever pondered her name. Did she see herself in letters and hear herself in the sounds?

            My name is easily ignored; easily forgotten. Every now and then I wish I had a name that made people sit up with its sound. It would be a name to present in long curly letters instead of being so small that it hides in the corner of my paper. Perhaps it would have six z’s, ten i’s, and an assortment of q’s. Perhaps it would be so long that a million nick names would only be the beginning. Perhaps it would be something like Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter Longstocking. However, at the end of the day, my name has grown one me. It wouldn’t be right to have any other name but Ruth; brown, fancy, mysterious Ruth Elizabeth Key.