It’s All in a Name
Our name shapes our identity. There was a time and place when, if your surname was Baker or Fisher or something with Smith in it, people automatically knew what you did for a living. Even today, what we’re called has been linked to a host of outcomes, including employment success and likeability.
While last names are automatically passed down along family lines, there’s creative freedom in choosing a first one. So every parent who has named a child has been asked some form of “what’s the story behind it?” (Those of us who gave our kids weird names get asked that question with the subtext of “and what’s wrong with you?“) Regardless of our age, gender, or nationality, we are all given a moniker at birth and inherit someone else’s story along with it. Only the rare few get to choose their own.
Joanne Le is one of them.
She was originally named Binh, but then chose to switch it to Joanne when she was an adult. (You can read the story behind it here.) Joanne’s decision to choose her own name encapsulates her continual choice to write her own life story. She was born into adversity, facing economic destitution in Vietnam and starting over in America as a young adult without speaking English. Yet she is now a successful business owner, a wife, mother, and active member of our community. Throughout her life, Joanne has faced a series of disappointments and setbacks that would leave most people jaded or worn out. But instead she writes her own story, including what people call her. And she is undeniably happy because of that.
“I am just choosing to be me,” she said after I asked her how she can be so positive in the face of so many challenging life circumstances.
“We all have an opportunity to choose to overcome our struggles.”
In the same way that our personal names influence our sense of self, naming a business carries an identity-shaping quality too. I’m a writer for Mabble Media, and am often asked the significance of our company name. Mabble is a verb meaning “to finish with excellence, beauty, and purpose.” The term is not used in modern English, although I’d love to see it in our everyday vernacular. “Yes boss, I will mabble that assignment.” Or, “she really mabbled that presentation.” But at Mabble Media, we mean it in the sense that we put care into our work from start to finish. Our name shapes the way we operate as a company.
The same is true for Joanne’s business. Nirvana Beauty Lounge is not named for the 90’s grunge band, which you probably weren’t thinking because that would be a weird inspiration for a nail salon and day spa. (Although Kurt Cobain did famously paint his fingernails, so it wouldn’t be totally out of the realm of possibilities.) The real basis for the name Nirvana Beauty Lounge, just like for the Seattle band, is the Buddhist concept that literally means “quenching” or “blowing out”. In nirvana, what’s being extinguished is known as the “three fires”—greed, hatred, and delusion. These destructive impulses are starved of oxygen, losing their ability to burn down our lives. A person is freed from the emotions of doubt, anxiety, and fear, and instead actively fills themselves with peace, spiritual joy, compassion, and awareness. This is how Joanne’s life is defined. And it’s the name she has chosen to define the identity of her business.
I asked Joanne, “What does the concept of nirvana mean to you personally?” She summed it up in a succinct yet elegant way.
“Believe in yourself; believe in others.”
For Joanne, nirvana is simply an active choice to overcome adversity, to believe the best in others, and to keep moving forward. This philosophy permeates Nirvana Beauty lounge. I spoke to Aysha, a young woman Joanne has mentored and employed at Nirvana for three years, who told me, “Joanne is calm about everything. She’s in harmony with herself and the way she interacts with others, and sees the best in everyone. She’s inspired me to live the same way.”
We’re all given a name. Most of us won’t choose to change it.
But we can all choose to believe in ourselves.
To believe the best in others.
To write our own stories.
That seems like a fitting way to mabble this article.
Guest writer, Brandon, is a Reno native and Mabble Media’s Brand Messaging Specialist. Storytelling and writing core messaging for brands is his thing, and he is particularly passionate about doing that for locally-owned businesses in Northern Nevada.
