My Name

Charles Terrell Shaw 1947

I have always liked my name: Charles Terrell Shaw.  That is what is on my birth certificate.

When I was born they say my great grandmother Minnie Wood Shaw thought my parents should make me the fourth in a line up of Columbuses! 

Columbus Turner Shaw (her husband and my great grandfather)

Grady Columbus Shaw (her eldest child and my grandfather)

Charles Columbus Shaw (her eldest grandchild and my father)

(Anything) Columbus Shaw (her name for me)

My father, they say, was adamant that he would not saddle another generation with that name.

"Terry" was a popular name in 1947 and my mother liked it, but she felt it sounded like a nickname and that my official name should be more dignified. She didn't care for "Terrence" so she picked "Terrell." I wish I could say I got that name because some distinguished relative or friend or other admired man had worn it, but Ruth Shaw just liked the sound of it. But she always called mr "Terry" as a child and usually as an adult, although she sometimes used Terrell in more formal settings.

So I was named Charles for my daddy and his grandpa Charles Reuben Wilkerson and, I suppose, a little for Mother's brother Charlie. And "Terrell" just because. And, of course Shaw because we live in a patrilineal society. 

Few people even knew my name is "Terrell" when I was a kid. Everyone called me "Terry". Somehow as an early teen I had to apply for a Social Sev=curity number so I could have a part-time job at the red Dot Supermarket in Ellijay. I gave my name as "Charles Terry Shaw!" That stupid move caused me problems for many years till I finally petitioned the Social Security Administration to correct that error when I was in my fifties. 

But I knew my name and liked it. As I grew older, and especially when I entered graduate school and

began my teaching career, I decided a "Terrell" would sound more grown-up. Besides I liked it. So from 1969 I have always been "Terrell" except to family and friends from my childhood.

I usually used just "Terrell Shaw" on bank accounts and other ordinary business and career dealings. But some legal documents require the first name. "First Name Chauvinism" is a frequent pet peeve of mine. At doctors' offices and pharmacies some folks are adamant that I should go by my first name. Grrr. I love my Daddy, but he was "Charles;" I am "Terrell." Fernando Molina was my primary physician for more than thirty years, but he never learned to call me "Terrell!"

I did have at least one other name. I was a husky baby, and I am told that was why my grandparents, "Daddy Shaw" and "Mama Shaw," and Daddy's brothers, James, Grady, Bill, and Jack and a few other relatives affectionately called me "Samson". I wrote a little about that here.