As you all know, my family recently changed our name. Now we're the McGraths. It's been quite an adventure - paperwork, decisions, getting used to the new name. It's been taking some getting used to, but I wouldn't change it for anything. ;) (Seriously - we could only do all that paperwork once! ;) If you all are interested, here is the story of the turn of events leading up to the name change.
Although we had been seriously thinking about it for the past few months, actually, my parents considered it before they got married, simply because Wisniewski was such a hard name to say and spell. Unlike many people who came over Ellis Island who Americanized their last names, this one had stayed intact for over 4 generations. However, because they couldn't come up with anything, my parents decided to keep it for the time being. Later on, after we all were born, I remember them joking about mixing "Wisniewski" and "Moloney," my mom's maiden name. Eva said, "How about McNiewski?" That was the running joke for quite awhile in our house. Sadly, it too was laden with spelling issues. :)
Last summer, my mom started seriously thinking and praying about it again. She told me, and I thought a lot about it myself. Because it was a huge family decision, each of us had the freedom to affirm or nix-nay it. However, after several months of thought, we had a unanimous yes. There were several reasons.
The most obvious reason is the difficulty of speaking and spelling it. Any time a business transaction over the phone happened, or anything else where you were required to verbally spell out your last name, things got really old really fast. Imagine trying to give your last name to an old lady at Lowe's with hearing issues over the phone - "That's W-I-S-N... N as in Nick... AS IN NICK.... yes that's right... N-I-E.... yes those are the right letters... I know it sounds like new... NO, there are not TWO N's, only ONE..." You get the picture.
Next, the fact that I knew my dad wouldn't mind. Since my parents had openly thought about it before they got married, and even tossed the idea around once or twice in my childhood, I knew he would be ok with it.
The final reason is a more religious reason. In the Bible, when any character had a major life change, and turned their heart and life to God in a more fully devoted way, God gave them a new name. When God called Abram to know Him, he gave him the name Abraham. After Jacob wrestled with the angel, the angel blessed him and gave him the name Israel. Jesus himself, calling Simon to be the rock of his Church, called him Kephas (Peter, Rock). After Saul was thrown from his horse and became the most devoted missionary of all time, he took the name Paul. The list goes on and on. Our family went through a huge change with the death of my dad two years ago, and we thought it fitting to take on a new name in this new phase in our lives. We are still the same people, with the same background; but we hope that this new name will help remind us of God and our duty to Him in this new stage of our lives.
Still, I needed some sort of affirmation, so I prayed that God would show me what He wanted me to do. I figured, IF I'm going to change it, it should be a family name that works for everyone, something that has some history and meaning attached. As for a middle name, I liked Evelyn, but it didn't have any real significance for me, but my confirmation name did. So, IF I did change it, I would take my confirmation name. The only issue with that is it is St. Maximillian Kolbe. I wasn't taking Maximillian, you couldn't pay me to take Maxine, so Kolbe was all that was left. But the IF's still bugged me a bit, so, I laid the whole thing out to Fr. Amberger, knowing that he would give me some good insight. He suggested that for the last name, it be something in the family, with some family history (funny, I had already be thinking of that). For the middle name, he said I should probably take a saint name, or maybe your confirmation name? Funny, i had already been thinking about that too! That was the green light that told me to run with this whole wonderfully, beautifully crazy thing. :)
So, with me assured and my family decided, we had to pick a name. Because of the plethora of ancestors we have, we had a pool of family names to pick from. Rooney was in the running, but I absolutely forbade it when I heard "Rose Rooney." No. Not happening. :) Mom didn't want to go back to her maiden name, and nobody knows how to spell Meehan. We even considered taking my dad's name, Wayne, as our last name, until we tried it with Jack's name and it became "John Wayne." All he needed then was a pair of six-shooters, haha.
So we decided on McGrath. My great-grandmother was a McGrath, just as my great-grandfather on the other side was a Wisniewski. We were equal amounts of both, only the McGraths had come through a line of girls, while Wisniewski had come through a line of boys, therefore remaining the same. It took several months, but finally we went to the county courthouse on March 22nd. We stood before a judge, and each individually went up and gave our old name, new name, and consent for the change. It was over in a few minutes, yet I surprised myself how happy I was walking out with an official paper with my new name on it.
I am so happy with my new name. It seems like the start of happy new chapter of my life. I am not leaving my past behind, or somehow morphing into a different person, I couldn't do that if I wanted too. But I'm not being afraid of the future, or not moving on. This is a part of this moving on, and a very exciting, happy part for me.
Thank you for reading!
God bless you,
Rose Kolbe McGrath :)
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