UNIQUENESS

Most of you who KNOW me, know my name is spelled Cheri and pronounced Cherry. Like the fruit or as I like to say “Like George Washington”. It took most of my life for me to accept this name. As a child I ALWAYS had to do battle with people on how to pronounce my name. Since I was extremely shy, most of the time I would just let people call me Sherry. And even after correcting people many refused to believe it was my real name. At one point as a teenager I even tried to go by my middle name, Lynn. That didn’t go over very well with my parents. And I never really felt like a Lynn.

People have always wondered where my name came from and how it came to be spelled the way it is. I had always been told my name came from a comic strip called “Smilin’ Jack”. I had also been told Cherry was Jack’s wife’s name. Well, after doing a quick Google search I found out the comic strip ran from 1933 to 1973 and Cherry is really Jack’s boss’ daughter not his wife. That was quite the surprise - after hearing differently all my life. But none the less, Cherry is still a character in the comic strip

Originally my name was going to be Cindy Jo. Fortunately for me the neighbor lady who was pregnant at the same time as my mom had her baby first and named HER daughter Cindy Jo. Being young and thinking they would ALWAYS be neighbors, my mom just couldn’t see how it would work having TWO Cindy Jos in the neighborhood. For some reason my Mom liked the name Cherry but my Dad didn’t want the name spelled like the fruit. My mom compromised and spelled it C-H-E-R-I. Come on Dad if it’s still pronounced like the fruit, isn’t it the same difference? Isn’t a fruit a fruit even if it is spelled wrong? :-)

So for years I have been called Sherry. Sometimes Cheryl because when people would see my first name along with my middle initial, Cheri L they for some reason thought they saw Cheryl. That’s the one name I WILL NOT answer to. Most likely I’ll knock out anyone who calls me Cheryl.

One time I filled out a form for a magazine subscription and did not “print clearly”. I ran the "r" and "i" together and didn’t dot my "i". When my magazine came it was address to Chen. Quite humorous.

Growing up my boy cousins always called me Charlie. I was never a girlie girl and I always attempted and succeeded at doing whatever the boys did. Most of the time I was better than them at whatever they were trying to do.

In high school my friend Barbie gave me the best nickname. It was quite long but I loved and still do love it. She called me “CheriBeriLemonSeedLynnEngel”. All one name. Love you Barbie.

But as I’ve grown older and wiser I’ve learned to embrace the uniqueness of my name. When I started my business 21 years ago I knew I wanted to incorporate my first name, only spelled correctly into the company name. For a long time I just couldn't find the right name, one that would be embrace my name and my personality.

One day my kids were watching "Double Dare" on Nickelodeon and one of the teams was named "Cherry Bombs". That was exactly what I was looking for. Out of that evolved Cherry Bombs Attitude Gear. It is a unique company name to go along with a unique business and even more unique owner.

Moral of the story: A name is just a name. Embrace it. Don't let your name define you but let YOU define the name.

Does anyone else have a great name story? I would love to hear your story.