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Story of Your Name

Location: Indoors

Time: 45 minutes

Materials: Blank name tags

Plastic sleeves for tags

Markers

Construction paper or craft paper

Stationery

Optional: envelopes, stamps

Objectives

• To strengthen one’s sense of self-identity in a positive way.

Directions

1. Have participants decorate a wearable name tag.

2. Direct participants to write a letter of appreciation to someone who was involved in naming them. This could be their mother, whomever they were named after, or perhaps someone who has made them feel good about their name in the past.

3. Ask participants to address the group with a short presentation about his or her name. In the presentation, participants should describe if they were named after someone or have a nickname and reflect on the suitability of the given name.

Observations

This activity was done in a group of thirty-seven. Most replaced the plain standard issue name tags with brightly decorated, cheerful tags. Writing letters was an optional activity but turned out to be the most appreciated segment of the session. These letters may be mailed or not, as appropriate for each group member. In the presentation segment, many read the letters of appreciation they had written. Contents of the letters ranged from, “I never told you before about how proud I am to be named after you” to “Thank you for choosing my name even though I go by my nickname.” Several people noted they had never let their aunts, who they were named after, know the kinship they felt. One woman was named after a stranger whom her mother met in the hospital and spoke good-naturedly about how unprepared for motherhood her mother must have felt at the time. Many told family tales about combining names to come up with just the right sound. Several knew nothing about their name and were then encouraged to reflect on their own feelings. None of the women had negative comments about their names.

Inspired by: The women in treatment talking about the history of their own names.

“Start with who you are today and go from there.”

ROXANNA ERICKSON-KLEIN