What's in a name?

My name is Rachel Wilcock.  There is nothing unknown about this.  My name isn’t that hard to hear or spell or write and yet there are problems…

More often than not if I introduce myself as Rachel I have to repeat myself, not in Northern Ireland though, no, in Northern Ireland I am understood right away.  My people, they understand. 

Rita? Rage…what? Rebecca?  In Kenya I spent some time correcting being called Rita but to no avail…so it stuck.  Rita Wilcock.  Solves the problem.

Then there’s the surname…

Wilcock is not too common a name but it has been heard before…Wilcox, Wilco, Wilcoco ( my personal favourite) have all been used and yet recently I encountered one of the more embarrassing ways to highlight your name.

I went to visit a new church and was welcomed by the most charming older couple who instantly adopted me.  I think they took my accent to mean I had only just stepped off the boat…from the famine…but nonetheless they were charming. 

Trying to get to grips with who I was and where I was from they asked for my name…

“Rachel Wilcock” I replied.

The service had not started but there was a general sense of reflective thinking in the air.

Silence as they absorb this information.

He queries, “Right, I see…Rachel Wilcox” he is really sounding it out, trying to place it, “…is that cox with an x or a ck?”

Before I can speak she responds, “No it’s Rachel Wilcock darling”.

“Cox?” he asks.

I have forgotten to mention that he is hard of hearing so she increases in volume.

“No, cock darling”, she corrects.

I stand mute, aware that the word they are debating may prove quite controversial in such a quiet place.

She continues, “C-O-C-K…cock darling, Rachel WilCOCK!”

“Oh Wilcock…oh!” he grins. “Oh my!”

He is now aware, as I am, that they have both been screaming 'cock' for about 3 minutes in a rather subdued church scene.  Although part of me is sure he is just laughing at my name!