By: Lexi Muir <[email protected]>

For senior Bendex Stevenson, having a unique name brought confidence, strength, and a great sense of humor to his life. “I think it’s made me be more outgoing towards people,” he said. “It helped me have lots of popularity. I like it.”

According to the article published in May of 2004, “Hello, my Name is Unique” from psychologytoday.com, parents today think that choosing an uncommon name will give children a leg up in life and be a way to tell the world that their child is different. While this may be the reasoning behind some unique names, it is not the case for all parents. Stevenson’s mother, JoNell Stevenson, does not think a name needs to be unique as long as a child is named for a reason.

“I think if you pick a child’s name for a reason it is a very good name,” Mrs. Stevenson said. “We picked our children’s names because we wanted them to be unique. Even if you named your child David III, there would be a reason, and that’s what matters.” The Stevenson’s daughter, a sophomore here, is named Adelynne.

“At first, (my husband and I) were throwing a lot of names around,” Mrs. Stevenson said. “Then, while I was pregnant, my husband found (Bendex) in a novel he was reading and brought it to my attention. We both agreed immediately, like it was meant to be or something.”

Even though Stevenson said he likes his name now, there was a time in his life when having such a unique name brought along low self-confidence and harsh jokes from other children. Around that time Bendex decided to be known as Ben. “It was just safer,” Mrs. Stevenson said.
Stevenson said, “(I got made fun of) when I was younger, like sixth and seventh grade, because my name rhymes with stuff like Windex and index. I was sort of self-conscious about it then, but now I’m just like, ‘haven’t heard that one before.’”

Senior Dahlia Shvets said she also has experienced some trouble throughout her life because of her name, but for different reasons than Stevenson. When Shvets was born, her parents had just moved here from Ukraine. Not knowing any English, they accidentally put her name as “Dally” instead of “Dahlia” on all of her official documents. She went by “Dally” all through preschool, even though that was not her intended name, and she said this caused a great deal of confusion and frustration for her as a child. “I didn’t even know how to say my own name,” Shvets said.

In first grade, Shvets and her parents finally decided that they wanted to fix the mistake. Her parents told her teachers that she wanted to go by “Dahlia,” like the flower, which is what they intended all along. Although this did fix the problem, it also created more confusion for Shvets as a young child.

“In first grade I basically had to relearn my name. You know when you get really excited because you learned how to write your name, and I had to relearn that,” Shvets said. “I also remember one day my cubby said ‘Dahlia’ and I was like, ‘Is that my name now?’”

Also according to, “Hello my Name is Unique,” by the time most people reach adulthood, they have either made peace with their name or changed it. Now, Bendex and Shvets said they have “made peace” and become more comfortable with their names.

Shvets said. “Its on my liscense, my ID, and my transcripts. It’s just not my name.” She plans on getting her name legally changed to avoid the wrong name on all of her official documents for the rest of her life.

“I really don’ want them to say ‘Dally’ at graduation. That would be really embarassing,” Shvets said.

“I think names are good and fun,” said Mrs. Stevenson. “They are part of your soul. Whatever your name is, be proud of it.”