What’s in a Name

When I met people for the first time, they often comment on my unusual name. In fact, they do so so much that Mike made me cards with answers to frequently asked questions about my name. (I love the cards; they’re one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given. My husband is a genius.)

One comment I hear a lot is, “I’ll remember that!” or “You can’t forget a name like that!”

Actually, people forget ALL THE TIME.

I can see the wheels turning in their head, when I meet someone who is struggling to remember my name. “It’s a noun. It starts with an ‘M.'” Then they call me Magic or Melody or Miracle.

This week, I’m in Nashville at a professional conference. I’m fairly involved in the field — I am president-elect of the board of the California School Public Relations Association, I serve on some different committees at the local and national level, and last year, I gave a talk to about 100 people on crisis communications. I focused on how school PR people can prepare for disaster before it strikes and it was very well-received.

Where am I going with this?

I was in a room of about 30 school PR people from across the southwest yesterday and one of my colleagues from Arizona said he attended Monica’s session at NSPRA last year on crisis communications and it was a good thing he did. Once he got back home, they had crazy flooding that led to them having to close campuses. He was out on the road and said he had only his cell phone and a link to Monica’s materials.

I was sitting there thinking, “who is Monica and what was her session about? I should have gone to that one!”

But this fella was looking at me and gesturing at me. Then it dawned on me. He was talking about me!

Me. Monica.

Can’t forget a name like that!