My "Roots"

A name is often overlooked. After all, there is nothing worldly that you can receive in your life that has more importance than your name. It is how you identify yourself when in the presence of other people. It's something that noone can take away from you. It has meaning so many people fail to appreciate the uniqueness of their own name. I recently read a book by the title Roots by Alex Hailey. The book traces the history of an African American family back to its origins in an African village in the 1700's. After the child was born the father took seven days to think of the appropriate name. On the seventh day there was a whole ceremony devoted to giving the child its name. It was treated as if giving the child a name was a sacred process.

My full name is Zachary Quinn Troutman.. I never really thought too much about how my name was chosen. I assume I was always too preoccupied with other thoughts or circumstances in my life to ever ponder my own name. When asked why my name is Zachary I couldn't even explain. It was kind of embarrassing actually.

I like the name Zach. Yes several people go by Zach but my name has no less importance. It sounds powerful and confident; at least I think it does. Also, the letter z is one of the least used letters in the alphabet so what better way to start a name than with a rare and unique letter. It turns out my parents simply picked the name Zachary out of a book of names. They claim it caught their attention more than most of the other names.

My middle name is Quinn. I didn't like the nam when I was younger. Most people used to call me "Quinny" or "Quinton", which always frustrated me. As I became older I grew more fond of the unique middle name I had. When I was asked to put my middle initial on a document or something like that I remember thinking about how many people that would see my name and then would attempt to guess what it was. My parents gave me the name Quinn after a person my father knew very well. Coincidingly, Quinn was the name of a character in a romance novel my mom had read that was popular at the time.

My full name always gave me a lot of opportunities for nicknames as well. It's cool because I can identify which groups of people are addressing me without even making eye contact with them. My lifeguarding friends know me as ZT so when they address me as such I know immediately it's them. My best friend in high school called me ZQ. It was awesome because she was the only person who ever called me by the nickname.