And we named them and it was...good?

The sixth grade English teacher and I decided to rename the children. For all the Franciscos, Antonios, and Mari-Carmens, we chose good, solid, English names. "Frank, Anthony, Mary," we wrote, crossing off their names in the attendance book.

Presenting the names in class, however, led to mixed results. Some of the children beamed at their new names (especially, I must say with pride, the girl who became Jennifer); others made faces when I told them how their new names were spelled (Sergio, who became Sean, was confused at how S-e sounded like S-h...I shrugged my shoulders). I chose the name "Hannah" for the Fátima in each of the sixth grade classes, thinking the vowels, at least, were similar. I doubted the children would be familiar with the name, showing my ignorance for the widespread effects of popular current American culture. As soon as I spoke the name Hannah, children in both classes erupted with cries of "Montana! Hannah Montana! Hannnnnnah Montannnnnna!!!!!!" (If you don´t know who that is, consider yourself lucky). The two Fátimas, both somewhat shy, blushed with the attention. I hoped they at least were Hannah Montana fans.

A José in one of the classes became Josh, since we already had a Joseph (José María) and a Joe (José Juan). This time there were yells of "Josh Bush! Josh Bush!" With a Spanish accent, Josh and George do indeed sound pretty much the same. While trying to explain that the two names sound very different to English speakers, I did at least feel glad that the Spanish children were aware of Americans other than a teenaged Disney star.*

Meanwhile, my own name constantly confuses well-meaning Spaniards. The most common pronunciation is something like "Chain-a" or "Chen-a" (really not too far off). In flamenco class, however, one woman decided that my name is "Sana" because that was easier than what I was trying to tell her. Perhaps I will revert back to the name I was given in my second-grade Spanish class. From now on, I´ll tell everyone to call me Juanita. Juanita Lafín.

*I can´t say I´m any better at being culturally aware. While Barack Obama makes the evening news in Spain for campaigning in red states, I am just now learning the names of the Spanish president and Spanish celebrities. Although I scored points with the sixth-graders for telling them my favorite soccer team is Real Madrid (the only Spanish team I could think of), I had to go with David Beckham when they asked me my favorite player. Well, he used to play for Real Madrid...