“Names can define our identity,” joked Professor Maria Ana Diaz. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay We identify ourselves by our names; nicknames, first name, middle name and last name. But, digging deeper, have you ever wondered how a person subconsciously picks up something about our names every time they read or hear it? Is our impression of them positive or vice versa? These questions continue to baffle me. I want to ask everyone: "What do you think of every time you hear my name, Peter?" Names are part of everyone's life. From the time our parents were still thinking about what name they would give us during our mother's pregnancy to the time they registered our birth certificates, our names gave us the primary identity and individuality that must have. Last August 9, 2018, our class carried out an activity that promotes the art of knowing each other through sharing things about our names in our respective groups; origin, reasons why we have that name, history behind it, personal or cultural meaning, and the like. With me in our group are Shaira, Danielle and Airica. By listening to their individual stories, I was able to learn something about them. Something beyond who I think they are based on their names. Shai, as she is fondly called by many, said her name suits her a lot. She's a little shy at first when we talk, but as our conversation continues she's managed to ease her shyness and catch up with the group's fun. Shai is much more than I expected. She is undeniably shy but above all she is bubbly and fun. Danielle said she wanted to be called Danielle instead of Eunice because she finds the latter very feminine, which is contrary to her personality; something hard. Preferring Danielle as a name to go by suits her personality; strong and independent.Airica affectionately called as Ikay is a girl with a fiery personality. He always manages to smile back at us. She said she didn't want the name Airica because to her it's just the slang version of Erika which she finds very useless. With her personality, I think her nickname Ikay really embodies her; something fun and easy to be with. As for me, my name signifies the triple "power" of my origins. My name comes from the three men in our family. Peter after my grandfather called Pedro, Den after my father's name which is Dennis, and Marck after my other grandfather's name which is Marcos; Peter Denmarck. I am strong, persevering and humble at the same time. Coincidentally, as previously mentioned, although I am named after my grandfather Pedro, Peter is a biblical name meaning “the rock,” and is also the name of the first pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Saint Peter. With this, I guess my parents wanted me to grow up righteously and live according to the ideals of St. Peter. There's a very good reason why we have our names like that. We may like it or not but we cannot deny that these names have truly given us the identity we have today. Somehow our names seem to twin the personality, beliefs, qualities and overall identity we have, right? Examine it and you'll see what I'm talking about. These are all manifestations of the fact that our names are not just meaningless codes that we have but are the spirit of our individuality. We embrace it and embody it. We are twinned with it. These serve as an indicator of our identity as they reveal what is essential to the naked eye other than what others see us. This observation may not always be true, but to some extent it gives.