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Paul Davidson

If My Name Was Aaren

There are people with strange names, that is true.

Sometimes I sit back and think about how my life would be different had my parents named me something else. Johnny, Bill, Graham, Rick, Jason, etcetera. It’s funny how when you see someone else with your name you often think to yourself that HE or SHE doesn’t like like a “whatever your name is”, but that YOU look like your name. You’re so used to looking at yourself and being called by your name that you identify with it so much that anyone else doesn’t deserve to have it.

I’ve often wondered what my life would be like if my first name was Aaren. Not Aaron, but Aaren — which I have met a few of them over the course of my life. If my last name was still the same, most of you people would be referring to me as Aaren D.

Well, immediately, I wonder if people would start making jokes about “research and development.” Was I “under research currently” with a name like Aaren D (R&D)? Were my parents research scientists who had decided to play a joke on me by giving me such a name? Did my parents believe that the life of a child never comes to full fruition until death, thus giving me the name to communicate that I was “in development” always… A work in progress?

Would the children of the playground make fun of me?

When I was a little kid, having moved from New York to Northern California — I remember walking out onto the playground for the first time as a fourth grader and coming in contact with a group of new potential friends. They asked me my name and I told them, “I was new…Paul.” For a year after, I was “New Paul” to everyone and their mothers.

I guess in the end, “New Paul” is better than “Aaren D” although sometimes I wish my name could be something more British like “Richard Paul Dean Anderson III.”

And don’t get me started on wanting to have a British accent. You’ll never hear the end of it.

In other news, I am going to see AIR at the Hollywood Bowl this evening. I’ll be posting some pics here and on LAist.com so if you’re a fan or you just like breathing, you’ll enjoy what’s coming tomorrow!

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