ABSTRACT
The seed of this book was born with my name—Seonaigh (shaw’-nuk). My parents chose this Gaelic version of Joanne as a tribute to my father’s sister, my aunt Joanne, and their Scottish Hebridean ancestry, a language and place he knew only through his parents. Similarly, my siblings were called in succession Colin, Lachlan, and Morag. In the end, my parents decided Seonaigh was too difficult and so called me Shawn. Forever obstinate, I changed back to Seonaigh at age 22, only to find most people anglicized it as Sonia. Initially, I tried to correct the error but was met with, Why what a strange name!? So, I went along with the crowd, calling myself Sonia while Seonaigh remained little more than a lingering curiosity on passports and university degrees, an emblem of a private life beyond the public gaze, asingular linguistic shoot with deep roots entangled in biology and history. It was only when I moved to accept my first academic position that I decided to reclaim my proper Gaelic name and pronunciation.
