Why do I call myself Rolly?

‘Hi! I’m Rolly, nice to meet you’ 

‘What?’

‘Rolly.’

‘Rolly? Like roly poly?’ 

‘Yep!’

I was known as Sharon before starting SCA. I felt an urge to change my name to something more memorable and fun to mark the new start in my life. 

Last August, I was wandering down a busy street in Hong Kong. A quote from a book on career advice came into my mind, it is about how many Pauls and Emily there are in the world, enough to make the people with these names harder to remember, so having an uncommon name can be helpful to be memorable. I then thought to myself, if I had my own company, what would be the name of it? What will it do? Something creative, definitely. Oh, if I could pick my name? What would it be? 

• it has to be unique, no Paul or Emily 
• it can’t be too feminine

There is a Japanese model named Rola. She wanted to be known as Rosa, but when her agency helped her to do the registration, a typo leads to an l instead, they then settled with Rola. Rola is definitely more memorable than Rosa. 

That’s how the first part of my name came from.

‘Roly’, ‘Rolly’ or “Rollie’? The last one is way too feminine. Ok, maybe Rolly works. 

At that point, I didn’t think I would actually change my name. Part of me believe that this is a bit disrespectful to my parents, who went through a thoughtful process into coming up with Sharon (most people from Hong Kong weren’t given English names when they were born, I sometimes do feel a bit special for having an English name on my birth certificate).

What can I get from changing my name? Maybe being Rolly with no history can allow me to be more courageous to show who I really am without feeling apologetic? Maybe I can be more at ease to be a playful child? Maybe I can leave Sharon behind as she has too much to think? 

I took this idea to my Hong Kong friends. One told me I should start seeing myself as Rolly from the first day of school. And having another name is just like having a pen name.

I am sold!

After the first week at SCA, I got used to the new name. It opened up conversations as it is not a common name. 

When my cousin discovered this, he sent me a video of a person trying to roll his way to the other side of a garden. My dad used the ‘laugh my ass off emoji’ when he found out. Cool. 

Rolly or Sharon? I think I do act a bit differently depending on which name am I using. Maybe there’ll be more magic happening with Rolly in future?