I keep forgetting where I put this so I’m putting it here and hoping the internet archive will pick it up one day 
When my parents christened me
They gave me both their surnames
My father’s African one
And my mother’s, which is English.
So that if I found that the African name
Brought with it a burden I found too heavy
To bear,
I could abandon it.Mine is not an easy name to carry
People are afraid to say it
In case they insult me by mispronunciation.
When I was younger,
It was the subject of many jokes
From my classmates.
Some were kindly meant, and some were not.
And assumptions are made about me,
On the basis of my African name.But I will not abandon it
Any more than it will abandon me.
It says who I am,
Where my roots are.
If I choose to lose the difficulties it brings.
I lose my history as well.
I am remembered because of it;
It marks me out
In a sea of Smiths and Joneses.
We should always be PROUD of our HERITAGE and what is said above is so true
I too was the subject of many jokes at school and still can be today - sadly
No one gets my name correct first time
It can be a source of fun for me to listen to them struggle to pronounce it (how bad is that)
I am a very PROUD ITALIAN
And your right it does mark us out in the sea of Smiths & Jones