"How'd you get your name?" My new manager asked me this, peering over my shoulder as I was getting acquainted with my desk.

"My mama gave it to me," I jested with the truth.

I knew what she was really looking for, so I began to tell her the story...

Names are an important part of our identity. They impact our lives, though others may not give them much thought.

I'm far from the only one who has had their name misspelled or mispronounced. These slights may be unintentional. Why shouldn't we put the same kind of intentionality into recognizing another human, who like us, has a name to represent who we are?

Impact tops intention.

Say my name: Nicknames don't count

We often forgive someone's mistake, even if it feels rudely sloppy (um, the spelling of my name is in the email you replied to).

What about people who just don't want to say our names? In that same workplace, another colleague upon meeting me asked if she could call me by a nickname. I didn't think much of it then.

When an American immediately bestows a nickname upon someone, particularly a person whose name isn't a conventional Western one, it says that one person's comfort is more important than the other person's identity.

What's in a name? Bias

Our names signal who we are and where we're from, sometimes with negative effects.

In undergrad, I took a sociology class with Doug Massey where we replicated the results of his research on how those with black-sounding names were discriminated against in their housing search. 

A similar study found “white-sounding” candidates received 50% more callbacks and those résumés had an advantage over “black-sounding” names equivalent to eight more years of work experience.

So, where did my name come from?

If you've read this far, I should tell you the end of my story.

My mother gave birth to me as a teenager. She found the name "Teisha" in a baby book and added "La" in front of it, thinking it sounded French. With her education, she didn't know the name doesn't look French. My name surprises strangers who aren't expecting a white woman.

My name is LaTeisha.

What's your name?