If you’re named after someone, find out who they really were. You’re carrying their story whether you know it or not.

Being named for somebody ties you to a person who may be nothing like the summary you were handed. Families tend to pass down a simplified and flattering version, while the actual person had a job, a temper, a difficult decade, and a few things they got genuinely right. Carrying a name with no information attached is oddly common.

Ask the oldest person in your family what that namesake was really like, unflattering parts included. Ask what they would have made of you. Knowing whose name you have makes it feel lent to you rather than simply assigned.