My full name is Andrew John Hungerford, but I answer to Andy or Andrew. Basically, over the course of recent life, Andrew has become my default name, and people can call me Andy if they so desire. My family and those who have known me for years (like my friend Matt whom I've known since the third grade) tend to call me Andy, but most of my later in college and grad school friends and acquaintances know me as Andrew.

Through all of my early school years into high school I went fairly exclusively by Andy. Then in high school, there were two other Andy's in my AP English class and on the Quiz Bowl Team. To avoid confusion we would oft be separated into Andy and Andrew and a sometimes-Drew.

Coming into college, I started going by Andrew with a bit more frequency because I like my full name and it hadn't been getting much use before. It was also convenient to introduce myself as Andrew to be more clearly associated with documents that bore my complete designation.

I know some people who really care about which version of their first name others use, and I can totally understand that. I'm not one of them, though. I find that most Andrews are pretty open about which version of their name is used, except for those who prefer Drew. They can be pretty hostile to other permutations. Kinda strange.

Names are a funny thing, and people sometimes generate different identities depending on which version of their first name is used. I think my Andy and Andrew personas are pretty unified, but who can say? How I refer to myself even varies depending on the situation. So maybe I'm in the middle of an identity crisis.

But if that's the case for me, then what about DJs who can be called by their stage name which may be quite different from their real name. What kind of confusion would that engender? An extreme case is actor Anthony Heald, star of Boston Public and MSU alumnus. His real first name is Phil, and it was by this name that he was known in college. Since then, however, he has totally switched over to using Anthony or Tony as his first name, even amongst family, as he didn't like the way that Phillip Heald sounded in billings.

Then again, at least he had decisive feelings about his own appelation, which apparently I'm lacking. Because here's something else: if I've introduced myself as one name, I kind of like it when a person I know spontaneously starts using a variation of my name without any input from me. Maybe it's because I never really acquired any cool nicknames in my youth, but I wanted to. Anyway, the people who know me as Andrew and start calling me Andy and vice versa both make me happy. And so did Steve, my English-accented physics TA who called me Drew. More likely it's the implied familiarity that I like, the idea that they're comfortable enough with me to know I won't mind. Because, no matter what the name, it's all about connection.

This bears more consideration, but for now I'm sleepy, so I'm done.

Now you can go back to my main page.