Ken Larsen's website - A lady of several names
Katuisha Staricovici is a swing dance buddy of mine who has several names and an amusing story behind those names. Here are the details.
Katuisha was born in the European country of Moldova in April of 1994. Her legal/birth name is "Ecaterina Staricovici". Astonishingly, she would not learn that until she turned 17. While she was a toddler, her mom (a lady name Luba) married a guy whose last name was "Mannanova". He nicknamed the child "Katuisha" which is Russian for "Katherine". Hence, she became known as "Katuisha Mannanova". However, the guy never adopted her.
When Katuisha entered the U.S. school system as a 5 year old, her mom identified her to school officials as "Katuisha Mannanova". That is the name that carried her throughout her school years. It wasn't until she turned 17 that she learned about her legal name of "Ecaterina Staricovici".
It's now 2019 and Katuisha is in the midst of a job search. Her resume carries her legal name of Ecaterina Staricovici. To her friends, she prefers Katuisha Staricovici. Americans have a hard time remembering the name "Katuisha", so they shorten it to "Kat".
I think her resume should identify her as Ecaterina "Katuisha/Kat" Staricovici, but that's my opinion.
It takes Kat a long time to explain the history behind her name. When I met her at a dance in January I asked her what her name was, she smiled and said "I have several". My reaction was "If this lady doesn't want to tell me who she is, that's okay." Months later I learned the whole story. It explains why she has an infectious smile and a nice sense of humor. She cultivated both telling the story over and over again.
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There's only one name for Katuisha in this picture: "Beautiful" |