Name

First days of school with a different set of teachers are always interesting. When the teacher does roll call for attendance, I wait until he or she calls on my name. There’s always a chance that they’d stare at my name for a second or two before pronouncing my name as “Row-be”and I’d have to correct them. Some years, the teacher would alternate between “Raw-be” and “Row-be” throughout the entire school year. Other times, the teacher would mispronounce my name for the entire school year, and on a good year, all six of my teachers would get it right the first time.

My father told me that he wasn’t originally going to name me Rhobie, but as he was thinking of names, it crossed his mind. He liked the name’s pronunciation in Creole. Although my name is common, the way it is spelt is different. The name is also usually seen as masculine. Every once in a while, a friend of mine almost gets in trouble because by the spelling of my name, their parents think I’m a boy. One of my closest friends told me that when I sent him a message saying who I was, he also thought I was a boy. He assumed I had the wrong number since most of his friends were girls. There’d be instances in which people add an extra ‘b’ or neglect the ‘h’ in my name, or if I was really lucky, the person would do both. In most instances, I’d let out a sigh, or possibly shoot a glare and correct them. Other days, I did not have enough energy to care. One could only correct someone so many times.

Despite the mishaps associated with it, I’ve grown fond of my name. For as long as I remember, I never cared about fitting in. I don’t follow trends simply because everyone else does. I don’t want to be like anyone else — I don’t need to be. I’d rather stand out, and my name is one of the things that help me with just that. People would tell me, “I’ve never seen it spelt that way” or “You’re the first person I’ve met with that name,” and every time, I can’t help but smile. I’ll take the mispronunciations, and misspellings, and the failed attempts of others trying to give me a nickname any day. My name will always be a part of me.