It’s often the first thing you say to me, and I can usually tell what you’re about to ask. I’ll be in a job interview or at some networking event, and we’ll say hello as your eyes flick down to my name tag. I’ll see you squint, maybe try to pronounce what you’re reading, and then out it comes.
“Why do you have so many names?” Yes, the double hyphen of Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier might seem like overkill, but there is a reason why I have so many surnames. Where I am in my life right now is a similar position to that of many others in their mid-to-late 20s. So much of this decade in a person’s life is spent navigating the uncertainty of new places and new relationships.
Quite a shock after the protected settings of the childhood bedroom and university timetable. We twenty-somethings have a lot to show for ourselves, but out here in the big world, there is a lot expected of us. And it’s hard.
It’s hard to have a decent idea of where you want to be in life without an obvious way of getting there. Having a triple-barrelled name makes me a target. But the sneers aren’t going to make me give up my identity.
And this is why I like my surname. It reminds me of those who did what I’m trying to do, who moved countries and knew what they wanted their lives to look like. Though I was named Liam Heitman-Rice at birth, I reverted to the original spelling of my name in my 20s and later added my grandmother’s name to the end.
Amid the lack of guidance I see within my own life at times, it helps me follow the passages laid by the itchy feet of my European ancestors. I come from many different places. My mother’s side originated from northern Germany (Heitmann), my dad’s hailed from Ireland (Ryce), and a small spritz of French ancestry is what positions LeMercier at the end of an already sprawling family tree.
It’s a name I like, one that carries the history of a family that has left their homelands in pursuit of a better life..
