Today’s Quick Write is thanks to Hena Khan. It’s about names.

If I could go back in time and name myself, I would choose Lisa Lorraine. Why? That was the name I was going to be called, but the last minute my mom switched and named me Denise Joanne.

I was always disappointed that I didn’t get the lilting and lovely name of Lisa Lorraine.

Lisa meant oath of God.

I got Denise.

I was named for a deity, though. Dionysus, god of wine and ritual madness.

I always wonder what became of Lisa-from-my-mom’s-girl-scout-troop. She was the reason I couldn’t be called Lisa. When my mom was expecting me, she was also putting up with Lisa in her troop. It must have been a stressful nine months, for my mom couldn’t bring herself to give Lisa a namesake.

I thought of  being Lisa over the years. I even wondered if I would have been a different person–more poetic, more graceful, more musical. (The only problem would have been my good friend Lisa in elementary school. We would have become Lisa S. and Lisa R.)

Yes, Lisa Lorraine, that’s me for a moment.

Lisa Lorraine – lithe and lyrical, softball all-star, auntie to her many sweet nephews, confident, singer, poet, and all-around not mean girl.