Ealan: A Brief History

   Hi. My name is Ealan. There are only a few of us in the world. You have to give it up to my parents for giving me such a unique name.

   But with a great unique name comes great responsibility to correct others on its pronunciation. Over the years, I'm always prepared to fire off my name at least 2 or 3 times when I meet someone for the first time. It's been interesting to witness how humans tend to grasp onto what they are familiar with when something new enters their ears.

   "Hi. I'm Ealan." (shake hands)

   "Ian?"

   "Ealan."

   "Eli?"

   "Ealan."

   "Eeeel-(inaudible mumbling)?"

   "Sure."

   I've had to deal with my name always having a red line underneath it in word processing documents, never making it passed the spell checker.

   I can't participate in Google search games such as typing in "[your name] is..." It only laughs in my face, asking "Did you mean 'alan is?'"

   When I Google search "Ealan," it's riddled with information about Pròiseact nan Ealan, a Scottish Gaelic arts agency. That's cool, since I'm an artist myself. And I'm 1/4th Irish. 

   From new teachers to coaches to meeting friends of friends, it's been an exciting journey to expose those I meet to my incredibly awkward name. My parents didn't think it'd be such a difficult name for the masses to latch onto, but I'm used to it. It's a part of who I am. My unique name has molded a unique personality, so I'm satisfied with it.

   It makes me smile when friends become defensive about my name.

   New Person: "What do you think about that, Eh-lawn?"

   Friend to New Person: "It's Ealan."

   New Person to Me: "My apologies, Eh-lawn."

   Ha! It's true, though. Normally, only those who know me or have hung out with me at least 3 times commit the correct pronunciation of my name into their long term memory. So if it's someone I know I probably won't see again or will only see infrequently, I let mispronunciation slide.

   "How do you let people say your name wrong? It bugs me, why doesn't it bug you?"

   "You would too if you've been dealing with it all your life. It's fun. It's an excellent indicator of who I really care about. So obviously you're in...for now."

   So how did my parents settle on Ealan? Well, here's the scoop:

   Since determining the sex of a baby wasn't around in the 70's and early 80's, boy and girl names had to be decided upon by the parents. For example, if I were a girl, my name would be Katie. No offense to the Katies or Kats or Kathryns out there, but I'm glad I'm not just another one of you! Haha! No, but seriously...

   I asked my mother for the details behind my name and how it came to pass, and so I will be citing from her account (which my father agrees with).

   I have 4 older sisters and no brothers, so the name Eli had been floating around since my second oldest sister was born. Even Eli Nolan was in the running at one point. But when my mom was pregnant with me, my dad had decided that Eli was jinxed, causing only girls to come forth from the womb.

   And so, Adam Sterling was conceived...literally. My parents were very satisfied with that name.

   I am an August baby, so maybe it was the heat, but my dad suddenly decided he no longer liked Adam Sterling 2 weeks before I was due. What?! My mom always liked having names decided upon well in advance of the birth, but my dad was adamant about it. So back to the drawing board they went. Eli was out, and my mom couldn't warm up to Nolan as my first name either. So they went back to combining names or taking them apart. (i.e. my sister Arian was chosen by taking the M's off M names. Marian...Arian! That's cool!) So, combining Eli and Nolan seemed like the next best step.

   Lo and behold, my dad liked it! According to my mom, this was a big step, because my dad apparently rejected many names over the years. So my parents liked the sound, but the next question is, "How will it be spelled so it's pronounced correctly?" They were afraid "Elan" would be pronounced "Eh-LAWN," but they also didn't want people to accidentally say "Ellen" either.

   So the "a" after the "e" was placed as not to have an "el" sound at the beginning, and another "a" as to not sound so much like "lynn" on the end. (This was news to me, hearing this from my mom. According to her, she pronounces it "EE-luhn." Huh...I guess it only takes a trained ear to really hear a difference between EE-luhn vs. EE-lynn, but I say EE-lynn.)

   My dad loved Ealan Joseph, sounding very Irish when said together. Having Joseph as a middle name was also somewhat of a tradition on my mom's side. Her father was Walter Joseph Carey, who was 100% Irish. And I may continue the tradition when I finally have children of my own.

   So there you have it - A brief history of how my name was chosen. Before I leave you, I thought I'd leave you with one last story of my favorite mispronunciation throughout the years.

   I was in high school, and I was sitting at my desk on the first day of another year. It was 7th period. Computer Lit with Mr. Weimer. He was a true computer nerd, but apparently not much of an English teacher.

   He was calling out the names of all the students alphabetically. Throughout school, I knew that I'd have to intercede once my name comes up. So once a teacher gets to Nelson or Olsen, I am on high alert.

   I knew Mr. Weimer had arrived at my name because there was a pause. He squinted and lifted the roll call sheet a bit closer to his bifocals.

   Mr. Weimer: "Uh-LEEN?!"

   I was shocked! I had never heard that one before. But I had to slowly raise my hand to correct him.

   "H-HERE...?! And it's Ealan."

   "Huh?"

   "Ealan."

   "...okay."

   And so I'll leave you with all the different versions of my name that I've heard over the years, including in person or over the phone. Thanks for reading, folks. Much more to come. 

   Eli
   Leland
   EE-lund
   EE-lan
   EE-lawn
   LEE-lawn
   Ellen
   Ian
   Eh-LAWN
   uh-LEEN
   Alan
   AL-lawn
   Ethan
   Kevin