The "Key" to my Name

Names, what are names? A name is a word or phrase that refers to or that can refer to a specific person.  Names interest me because they are something that individualize a person.  Names are usually one of the first things you learn about someone when you meet them.  My name in its entirety is Kevin Patrick Key.  My last name is the part of my name that I find most significant to who I am.

My last name, Key, is fairly simple. Three letters.  One syllable.  Also something most people carry around in their pocket.  Yet, nobody ever understands my last name.  People often mistake my name with Keith.  I've even seen my last name written as Qui.  When giving my name over the phone or at some place like the doctors office I've gotten into the habit of spelling out my last name.  Key also rhymes with a lot of things (hence the web address to this blog).

My last name, like most people I know, comes from my father.  His family immigrated to the Bahamas from England and Scotland a long time ago.  About three generations ago my dad's family came to America from the Bahamas.  My dad does a lot of investigation with ancestry and family tree stuff and over the years he has built a fairly extensive family tree and gathered lots of information.  Two summers ago, my family vacationed in the Bahamas and we intentionally went to a small island called Elbow Cay.  While we were there we met a few local families with the same last name as us and my dad proved that they were related to us.  I thought this was pretty cool.  Growing up, I always thought my last name came from the Florida Keys because we visited the Keys many times as part of visiting family in south Florida.  Anyways, to me my last name brings humor to my name and links me to the Bahamas and England.

In Anna Quindlen's essay, "The Name is Mine", she talks about there being "two me's", her as an individual, and her as part of a family.  I can relate here in many ways, but a good example would be lacrosse.  One way of looking at this would be how I view myself as an individual and part of a family.  As an individual on the field I always feel I can better myself and improve my game.  I spend hours hitting the wall trying to get my stick skills to the best they can be.  Lacrosse is a team sport, so I also have a responsibility to my team.  I also spend hours at practice working with my team, trying to figure out how we can be most effective as a unit.  Without my team and my defensive unit specifically, I would be useless by myself, but together as a team we can accomplish great things and reach goals.  There is also the aspect of how other people view me as a lacrosse player, and how they view my lacrosse team.  In considering this perspective I believe that myself as an individual is irrelevant.  I could be the worst player ever or the best player on the team, and it wouldn't matter because I represent the results of my team.  So the dilemma is: What is more important to focus on, being better as an individual or as a part of a family?  In the grand scheme of things I believe that me as an individual is only relevant to me and people close to me, but me as part of something bigger is more important and relevant.  Me as a part of my lacrosse team makes a bigger impact and effects more people.