SAY MY NAME

“Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.” Warsan Shire - Poet

Sawiya - (Pronunciation: Sa-Wee-Ya)

My name is an interesting one. It's not common in the Somali community. It is an Arabic name meaning togetherness. I've had other suggestions on what my name means based on different contexts. Equality. Straight/Straightforward.

People have had trouble pronouncing my name throughout school, college and university. It really is no surprise to me. However, the highlight of "the mispronunciations of my name" was when my Art teacher called out my name from the register. I used to hate register time because I was tired of repeating my name after the teacher when she gets it wrong. Bare in mind, they never seemed to digest it even though they were teaching me for years. But this pronunciation takes the cake. It's the ultimate winner. She called me "Swahili".

I was in year 10 at the time and couldn't fathom how the written word "Sawiya" ended up looking like "Swahili." My name doesn't have the letter 'L' in it, nor does it have a 'H' and it's not a whole language either. Most of the time, I think people are genuinely lazy to actually make an effort. I appreciate those who ask me first at the very least, because they will hear me say it, listen and then remember how it sounds. I would prefer that over those who take a look at the word and just guess.

"Orange Is The New Black" star Uzo Aduba said something empowering about her name. She told The Improper Bostonian about making a conscious decision as a Hollywood star not to change her name and how people should learn to pronounce it. I salute this woman for being true to herself. Here's what she said:

"My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means “The road is good.” Quick lesson: My tribe is Igbo, and you name your kid something that tells your history and hopefully predicts your future. So anyway, in grade school, because my last name started with an A, I was the first in roll call, and nobody ever knew how to pronounce it. So I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, “Why?” I said, “Nobody can pronounce it.” Without missing a beat, she said, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka."

As a kid, I'm not going to deny that I wanted to have a different name. Simply because mine was so different and bizarre to people. I also used to ask my mum where she got my name from. Her good friend from Yemen was named Sawiya and that name just stuck with her.

And obviously when you're a kid, you just want to fit in and be just like your friends. I hung around with a lot of girls with basic names. Names that are common and easy to say.

But you will grow to love your name. I know I did. I started to love it when people told me they've never heard it before. Or when they tell me I'm the only Sawiya they know. Now I'm seeing the beauty in it.