racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

A lot of people have been calling me “J” if just for the initial that stands for my first name. A few folks know what exactly it stands for (it’s part of public record, you know), but a most do not, or don’t care. If you’re wondering what’s behind the name “J. Angelo,” then read on.

Back when I was in preschool, I had a hard time writing my complete name. I had a habit of using a ruler as a guide, and it took me minutes just to finish writing my name.

Jxxxxx Angelo B. Racoma

And so my mother told me I could just initialize the first name instead of writing it whole.

J. Angelo B. Racoma

At some point, I think about 4th grade, I even dropped the middle initial.

J. Angelo Racoma

By about 7th grade, I thought having an initial was uncool, and for simplicity’s sake, I dropped the “J.” altogether. That’s why most of my schoolworks since then didn’t have this feature.

Angelo Racoma

Throughout high school, I mostly used just “Angelo Racoma,” and most works during that time bear this name, including exam papers, submissions in the school’s literary and news magazines, and the like.

But then Internet services started becoming popular (that was the late 1990′s). And I found it increasingly difficult to just get “angelo” as a sign in name. And so I added “j” which made it “jangelo” and decided to include the initial “J.” since I was already using it anyway.

J. Angelo Racoma

I realized it was a good move, since it’s my legal name, after all. Even if it were initialized, it still represents Jxxxxx. And so most of the time, you’d see me signing “J. Angelo Racoma” on emails and letters. I’d even include the middle initial on legal documents, for completeness’ sake: “J. Angelo B. Racoma.”

But people still call me “Angelo” and not “J.” except for a few folks who know me as “J. Angelo” and probably think it’s simpler to call me by my initial. But I do have a cousin whose nickname is Jay, and I think calling me “Jay Racoma” would definitely be confusing.

So I’m sticking with Angelo.

And that, folks, is the history behind “J. Angelo.”

Does your name have a history?