“Wormy! Wormy! Come right here, Wormy!” I’m seven years previous, arms wrapped throughout my legs like a protecting defend, whereas a bunch of older children tease me within the playground with the unflattering nickname that will plague my childhood.
A moniker derived from my surname, Worman (pronounced “Battle-mon,” not “Worm-man,” though such nuances eluded my classmates within the 90s), the straightforward act of rescuing a worm from being unceremoniously reduce in half would earn me the unlucky title for almost a decade. How intelligent they will need to have felt after they put two and two collectively, and the way infuriating it was for me. From then on, I hated my uncommon surname and the joking that got here with it.
In line with the Web Surname Database, Worman originates from the previous English time period for a talented employee or artisan. One family tree web site goes so far as to hyperlink its origins to the kings of Mercia. Whereas there don’t appear to be any well-known or noteworthy Wormans in latest historical past, we’re seemingly an sincere bunch, holding down jobs as butchers and painters and labourers in England for the reason that early 1800s.
My title would have pale into obscurity from our household generations in the past, had it not been for my grandmother having my mom younger and the daddy’s id remaining a tight-lipped secret. On my mum’s council property within the Nineteen Sixties, illegitimacy was frowned upon, and as her mother and father weren’t married, she took her mom’s surname. My very own father was absent, and whereas I used to be near his household rising up, I didn’t take his surname both. And so Worman caught round like a chunk of used gum.
I suffered by being a Worman as a toddler, so when Fb got here alongside in my teenagers, I knew it was the chance for a self-styled reinvention. I glided by Evelyn Rose – my fairly, delicate center title that garnered compliments within the smoking areas exterior nightclubs and drew reward from my first boyfriend’s mum. She stated it reminded her of “sweet-smelling fragrance”. I basked in my newfound confidence.
After college, resentment in the direction of my surname thawed. There wasn’t a single epiphany, however quite a sequence of small revelations. Assembly college students from completely different backgrounds helped shift my perspective; I got here throughout surnames much more fantastic and strange than mine. Laughing with others in regards to the quirks of our names grew to become a stunning supply of connection.
However the jokes stored coming when Worman made its look as soon as once more, this time on my CV. Once I took my first job in promoting and began courting a colleague, he was requested when he was going to “sperminate the Worminator”. What I might have executed to be known as one thing acquainted and peculiar. Not a reputation that will ignite informal workplace misogyny.
It wasn’t till I signed as much as Ancestry that I lastly let go of hating my surname. Prior to now 100 years, roughly 200,000 surnames have vanished from England and Wales, in response to a examine performed by the web site. Household bushes are suffering from surnames that come and go, however mine continues to cling on. Individuals have remarked on its uniqueness and the truth that you don’t hear it each day. Each are true. That feels oddly gratifying. Worman is mine. It’s not “fairly,” but it surely’s memorable – and it’s survived.
Now that I’m in my early 30s and have given start to my first little one, I’ve turn into fiercely protecting of my surname. Worman, with all its playground torment and awkward workplace banter, has earned its place. When our son arrived this summer season, we selected a double-barrelled surname, honouring each side of his heritage. It’s a legacy that would have pale however will now, hopefully, stand the take a look at of one other era.
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