Positioning and Being Positioned

Hello, my names are:

Megan Elizabeth Daub Westman- This is my full, given name. I have literally never been called my full name, unless someone is reciting it because they saw it written down. Even when I was a child and my mom would use her stern voice on me, she would always say "Megan Elizabeth Westman." My second middle name generally gets left out. My parents named me Megan for no reason except that they liked the name! My aunt's name is Margaret, so they may have gotten the inspiration from her, but there isn't any deep meaning behind the choice. Elizabeth is my grandmother's name, and Daub is my mother's maiden name. Despite the fact that it usually gets dropped, I am very glad to have my mother's maiden name included in my full name. I feel that it provides a connection to my mother's side of the family, and I'm glad to keep that in my name, and not just be a Westman. Westman doesn't really give anything away about my family's background or homeland, it's pretty generic! And it's useful because it's one that people rarely spell the wrong way. 

Megan- 95% of the time, and to 95% of people, I am simply Megan. It's how I introduce myself, how my name appears on class rosters, and generally the norm for anyone talking to me. I really like my name, and couldn't imagine being named anything else. I feel that Megan suits me pretty well. It's a popular English/Welsh name and it means "little pearl." That meaning has never really resonated with me, but I like the name. I feel that Megan is a pretty informal sounding name, which is nice. Not incredibly dignified or anything, but it is simple, and has a nice ring to it, and I've never wanted to be named anything else.

Megan Elizabeth- On occasion, people call me Megan Elizabeth. Mostly my family, or when people are joking around with me and choose to use both names. It always feels very affectionate and caring to me when people use both names, probably because it means that they know my middle name, and it has sort of a warm, loving ring to it. 

Meg- I am often Meg to those who know me very well and those who don't know me at all. My closest friends and family call me "Meg" as an affectionate nickname. Those who don't know me well and don't necessarily really remember my name sometimes call me Meg because that's all them remember... Either way, I like the name and don't mind. It is very friendly sounding, and I always enjoy being known as Meg. For a short period in high school, I thought I wanted to go by Meg as the norm, but quickly realized that while it's a good nickname, Megan really suits me more on the whole. Though, in classes with multiple Megans, I often go by Meg to make things simpler.

Nutmeg/Meglet/Megaroo- These are all variations on my name that have been nicknames since childhood. Nutmeg comes from the spice, Meglet comes from my love of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, and Megaroo is one that my sister made up and it stuck. All of these are fun things to be called, and rather cute nicknames, and I've always enjoyed them. 

Smeags- Not the most flattering nickname in the world, but this one was started last year by my group of friends at American and has stuck. We had a thing for watching lord of the rings, and someone realized that meg and smeagol sounded similarly, and thus "Smeags" was born. Though I can't say I'm super excited to be compared to Gollum's creepy split personality, we all have nicknames for each other and the use of this one, silly as it is, is always affectionate and appreciated. It has stopped representing smeagol to me, and is just a nickname! Weird as it is, I've grown to like it. 

MegWest- To the group of kids who I did community theater with in high school, I became MegWest. Pretty obvious, some one just chose to combine parts of my first and last name and created this nickname. This nickname always makes me feel very in control and in charge, because it would often be called across a space to ask me to make decisions about what we were doing. In a community theater organization run by under 18-year-olds, you take on a lot of responsibility and this nickname signifies to me all of the work that I did while in charge of the company. It will always mean something special to me.



Hello, my names are NOT:

May-gan- For some reason, many people are convinced that my name is pronounced this way, and it is not! I had a teacher in high school who I knew very well, and had for 3 out of 4 of my years, who even wrote my college recommendation, and stilled called me "May-gan" by the end of senior year. Some people just pronounce it that way, and I've learned not to mind, but sometimes it still irritates me a bit when it happens.


Meagan/Meghan- For being such a simple name, there sure are a million ways to spell Megan. Mine is the simplest, and to me makes the most sense, so I never understand why people assume there will be an extra a or e or h thrown into the mix. 


Ed- When we were young, my sister caught on to the fact that my middle initials spell "Ed" and started to call me that. It would make me very very angry because I didn't have any clever boy's name to call her, and I always hated when she called me Ed. To this day, she'll bring it up and I'll be irritated, regardless of the fact that I know it's silly and it's been many years! 


Wegan Mestman- Go ahead, laugh. It's funny. This is a nickname that everyone in the world except for me thinks is hilarious. I think it's stupid, and I realize it sounds funny, but it bothers me. People will say it and laugh and I'll just sit there and be unamused. I don't know what it is about this nickname, but I don't like it. Nicknames are generally affectionate, but this one just feels mean. I don't like it, and don't think I ever will!