Johannesburg - Have you ever introduced yourself to people only for them to be taken aback by your name?
Have they laughed and asked whether you were joking, or just appear shocked?
The Star spoke to three people who have gone through life being questioned about their names.
* When he was in primary school, the police’s Warrant Officer Hitler Ngwenya was summoned to his principal’s office. As he got into the office, he was asked to have a seat.
He didn’t know why the principal wanted to see him.
And then the principal blurted the words out: “I have decided to change your name from Hitler to Hector.”
The young Ngwenya did not know what to make of that.
For one, he loved his name and saw nothing wrong with it. And then, although it was obvious that the principal had spent a lot of time agonising about that decision, he had not even consulted Ngwenya’s parents.
As Ngwenya stood there, the principal’s only explanation was that it did not have a good history.
Ngwenya refused to have his name changed. His parents gave it to him and he saw nothing wrong with it.
Looking back now, Ngwenya thinks his principal might have foreseen challenges that could have come with his name hence he wanted to change it himself.
“When he said he wanted to change it, I did not know the history behind it. But I think he was scared that it would give me problems in the future and to some extent he was right.”
Ngwenya, who is a police spokesman for the Muldersdrift area in western Joburg, believes that his Germanic name might have held him back career-wise.
For as long as he remembers, he has wanted a job where he could be in a position to protect people.
When he completed matric he applied to the army.
Though he was young and fit, he was rejected.
He later became a police officer but even then he could tell that his name made people uncomfortable. It took him quite a while to move up the ranks.
Even today it’s still not easy telling people what his name is.
Ngwenya has another name, Molefi, but he never uses it as he has always been known as Hitler.
“My name is affiliated with someone who was seen to be cruel so I understand why people ask questions. I am not sure what they are thinking. I am a police officer, I do good. It’s just a name, it was given to me. My parents were not educated and I don’t think they knew anything about it.”
* Party-Day Moloi is in the same boat at Ngwenya in that people find it hard to believe her when she reveals her name.
Moloi was named by her great-grandfather 37 year ago.
The old man had thrown himself a birthday party and when the festive mood intensified he got news that his great-granddaughter had just been born, on his birthday.
There and then he decided that her name would be Party-Day.
Throughout the years Moloi thought it might be a nickname until a baptismal certificate showed her that she was indeed Party-Day Wildret Moloi.
Even with her second name, Moloi had to fight with teachers who wanted to change it from Wildret to Mildred.
As spokeswoman for the South African Nursing Council, there is always drama before she can be interviewed.
“They will ask me: ‘Why are you Party-Day?’ and I have to explain.”
Her day-to-day living is no different.
“Some people would say ‘I am looking for your real name, is this your real name’? So I usually carry my ID because it is hard for some to believe me.
When she finally has children, Moloi intends to given them normal names so that they don’t have to go through what she went through.
* When Alone Pilusa tried to register an account, Facebook rejected his name and gave him a choice of three names to use – Alonso, Alovich and Alonios.
He chose the latter because as a person in the media, he needed a Facebook account.
Pilusa, who runs a community station called Merafong FM in Carletonville, West Rand, was named by his aunt, who allegedly wanted him to be an only child.
“She probably wanted me to be the only child; she showered me with love.”
Despite his aunt’s wishes, Pilusa’s mother went on to have more children.
While he was never teased about his name, people always asked him: “Alone, is that even a name?”
Pilusa does not have another name, however when he was young he was fat and used to be known as Mafutha (Fats).
Even into his teenage and adult years, he continued to be called Mafutha.