What’s My Name?!

Having two names was never an easy thing for me, even though I don’t think it’s that complicated or weird. Plus it’s a very normal and common thing in Tunisia.
I actually see it as one name: “Mohamed Marwen” as a whole entity. Although I did amuse myself sometimes by thinking that “Mohamed” is the good side of me, while “Marwen” is the dark one.

Anyway, it seems that some people just need to have one name or else they get a system failure error somewhere in their mental address book.

So, as a child growing up in Zimbabwe, all my friends called me Mohamed because they thought it was my first name and Marwen was my second one. Plus I guess they found it easier to say than Marwen in english.

Then when we moved back to Tunisia, everyone called me Marwen. This is due mainly to the popularity of Mohamed as a name, so if there is any another option that’s the one they’ll go for. Still, some in the family called me Mohamed for no particular reason.

And then I went to Jordan, and that’s where the real problems started. When I’d meet new people, I’d start to tell them my name was “Mohamed Marwen”, but then to avoid the whole story of me having two names and why, which isn’t as common there, I’d just say “Mohamed”.
But, the problem is that some other people were introduced to me through some Tunisian friends of mine. These people would come to know me as “Marwen”.

So as if it wasn’t enough that some people felt I had so many personalities mixed up in me, I was also known to people by two different names, and they thought that I was two different people.

I remember once in university, two people were talking and one of them was telling the other about this Tunisian guy they know who’s called “Marwen”, and the other said they also knew a Tunisian guy whose name was “Mohamed”, and they were both talking about how they should meet these two interesting Tunisian guys.
As they talked, they found so many similarities between these supposedly two different people, and they started feeling a bit weird. By coincidence, I was passing by, and both of them saw me and were like “There’s the guy I’m talking about” at the same time, and then they sure felt a lot weirder.

Other times, I’d be with someone who knows me by a certain name, when someone else comes up and uses the other one, only leaving the first person feeling lost, confused, tricked even.

Each time I’d have to go through the process of explaining how I have this compound name, that I didn’t know why the hell I did, and that they could call me whatever they wanted to. I had to have my receivers ready to be called by any combination of the two names anyway.

Now, there’s a new trend some people I know are starting, they’re calling me by my last name “Meddah”. That’s neat. As if I needed more names in the first place.
Oh and let’s not forget the people who choose to call me “Subzero” or “Subzero Blue”.

It seems the nightmare will never end…

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Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

6 thoughts on “What’s My Name?!”

  1. I figured Marwen (-wan) was your dad’s name. I thought by living in Jordan, you picked up the idea.. I guess not. Now, do you mind telling me how a Tunisian ends up in Zimbabwe and Jordan??

  2. Mochekes, it seems there is no winner and only one loser: me πŸ˜›

    Medusa, nah, my dad’s name is, drum roll, Mohamed again πŸ˜›
    Plus in Tunisian we use the whole Foulen Ben Foulen thingie when we want to show the father and grandfather in the name.
    As for Zimbabwe and Jordan, well my father worked in Zimbabwe for 7 years, so I was there with the family, and I studied university in Jordan πŸ™‚

  3. Hey Marwen, can I call you 3M? That would summarize all your names in one, and I don’t know anyone on earth who’s called 3M! πŸ˜‰

    I used to have issues with my name, as a child I wanted people to call me with my borther’s name instead, very weird I know :))

    But I started enjoying the “benefits” of having my name as I moved aborad. It’s easily pronouncable and memorizable. Well, not quiet… sometimes I have to explain that I am not “Derek” and I am not “Tareeq”, which can take a while. Oh, and I often have to explain that I am not Hungarian!

    :))

  4. Koffiekitten, five is the number of names that a number of people share, I don’t want to even think of the individual names I’ve been called.

    Tarik, well if you call me that you’ll be the 2nd person to have chosen to call me that and I’ll soon have to start keeping an ear out for it.
    And btw, what’s your brother’s name?
    I could call you by it if it still makes you feel any better πŸ˜›
    And what’s with the Hungarian thingie?

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