What's in a Name?

Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Shakespeare believed that what matters most is the thing itself, and the name of the thing shouldn’t change our perception of it. On the contrary, I believe differently. I think that names are very important because we recognize everything in this world through the use of names, but the question is how does a name change a thing or a person? To start with, names can fire up people’s imagination. To illustrate, iPhone is a worldwide famous name and many people are willing to pay high prices for an iPhone. An online survey proved that there would be less people willing to buy iPhones if they were named something else like the “Ooompf”. In addition, I once read that a child was bullied because of his name. His name was O’Reilly, but people liked to tease him and called him “Oh Really”! Furthermore, I found out that famous celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple. I feel bad for their daughter, because wouldn’t she get bullied because of her name? Thus, we should not underestimate the power of a name. My name is Patricia. According to Urban Dictionary, my name means imaginative, peaceful, humorous, and likes to travel. I think that it is quite an accurate description of me. Will I still be the same person if my name is something other than Patricia? According to my previous examples, since names shape us, I would be an entirely different person if my name were not Patricia. However, I do not like to think about this possibility because losing my identity through the loss of my name seems like a scary experience to me.