My Name

 

As you can see from my blog's name, my first name is Chelsea. I absolutely love my name. I've said before that my parents were going to name me Ashley but changed their minds. I'm glad that they did, not that I have anything against the name Ashley. I just look more like a Chelsea, ya know?

But as much as I love my name, most people seem to have some sort of difficulty with it. So, I'm here to clear that up.

I was born when Clinton was in office and because he had a daughter named Chelsea, all of my parents friends thought that I was named after her. That actually wasn't the case but that didn't stop people from hounding my parents about it. (If you want to know the full story of my name, click here.)

For the first 2-3 years of my life, I was called "Baby Clinton" much to my parents' dismay. And even though I'm grown now, that stigma still follows me. I can guarantee you that 9 out of 10 times that I introduce myself to someone I say, "Hi, my name is Chelsea," the other person will reply, "Like Clinton's daughter!" (Eye roll.)

You know how I said that happens 9 out of 10 times?  The other 1 time, they go, "Like Chelsea Lately!"

It's gotten to the point that I'm just annoyed by their lack of originality. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Chelsea Handler or Chelsea Clinton but I have my own identity. I don't like being called my someone else's name all the time. I tell everyone that I don't like being called by those names and they persist anyway. So if they are trying to get my attention by calling me by one of those names, I don't respond until they use my proper name.

I realize that this might be seen as a bit extreme and as something that I should just let go. But when you repeatedly tell people that you're annoyed by something and they continue to do it, it's hard to just accept it. My sister deals with a similar problem. Her name is Kelly and she is constantly called Kelly Clarkson. Needless to say, she gets really annoyed by it too. Just because we share the same name with famous or well-known people does not mean that we like to be referred to by their names.

So if we ever meet in person, please call me by my given name. After almost 21 years of being known as "Chelsea Clinton", it's getting old. And if you're someone that I know that calls me that, please stop. Really.

What bugs you about your name?

-Chelsea