Monday, February 13, 2017

Lina Hansson

Misspelled and Mispronounced 



        My name is Lina, and it has no particular meaning. My name is a nickname for Karolina or Evelina or Axelina. It has been torn apart and assigned to me.
  No one outside Sweden can pronounce it, no matter how hard they try. They just can’t get that “i” right. I always end up being Lena, which is fine. I don't mind, except that it is the name of my least favorite aunt, who is always a bit rude and arrogant. When my grandmother moved to a retirement home, my mom and my other aunt helped her move in, and got everything in order. A few days later when they came back to visit, my rude aunt had moved all the furniture around the way she wanted it because, according to her, her way was better. It always is, so now the bed isn’t underneath the mechanism that can lift my grandmother up if she would die in her sleep or just needs to be lifted, but it’s “better this way”. 
I find it a bit funny that whenever I go to a restaurant or coffeeshop and they ask for my name, they usually get it wrong. I try to pronounce it as well as I can, but it doesn’t help. I’ve been Nina, Ninna, Dina and Linna. The last one is pretty close to the original, but not quite there yet. I make it sound like this is awful, but it’s not that bad, my Danish friend’s name is Rikke, and it is pronounced almost like “Reggae”. I can’t even pronounce her name correctly. She can’t say mine either, so we’re even. 
Despite all this, I like my name. We’ve been with each other quite a while now, and we get along just fine. 
       Axelina was my great-grandmother and her nickname became my name. My mom loved her and decided to give her name to me, even though my dad and her had already decided on Elin. I don’t know anything about my great-grandmother, but I do like the name I got and I have her to thank for it.

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