"It was Feb. 19 my daughter's second birthday. The guests had left and the house was quiet. I finally sat down and pressed play on the voicemail notification blinking on my phone. "This message is for Janice," the voice said. I almost deleted it. Wrong number, I assumed. The voice continued: "I'm calling to wish her a happy birthday." My stomach tightened."
"This individual has completely skipped my daughter's first given name Morenike and replaced it with her middle name. A name she never goes by. That moment stung. Not just because it was wrong but because of what it symbolized: a quiet but deliberate erasure of identity. The woman on the voicemail, an adviser for the education fund I'd set up, had ignored my daughter's first given name which appeared on every form I'd painstakingly filled out and called her by what she chose."
"By her fourth birthday, I was waiting by the phone. The call did come. As usual, she requested for Janice. I calmly responded, "Did you mean Morenike?" Silence. And I heard what seemed like uncomfortable shifting at the other end of the phone. Morenike, she finally said. I had succeeded in defending my daughter's name. Names with stories and meaning Morenike is a Yoruba name that means "I am cherished.""
A mother chose the Yoruba name Morenike for her daughter, meaning "I am cherished," and used it from pregnancy onward. On the child's second and subsequent birthdays, an adviser for the education fund left voicemail messages addressing the child by her middle name, Janice, despite Morenike appearing on every form. The parent experienced the substitution as a deliberate erasure of identity and corrected the caller, insisting on the given name. By the child's fourth birthday the caller finally used Morenike. The parent emphasizes the name's cultural significance and the importance of honoring naming choices.
Read at www.cbc.ca
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