Sue's News

What’s in a Name?

March 24th, 2009

Many of my readers know I have an identical (yes, identical) twin sister, and even if I tried, I could never possibly count all the times I’ve been mistaken for Dina, or she’s been mistaken for me.

Apparently, New York is rife with Susan Hodaras… I’ve been mistaken for the others a few times. I’ve even exchanged emails with two of them.

I’ve gone through more nicknames than I can or even care to remember, and a whole host of nicknames that Dina and I came up with for one another.

And then there’s the issue of “Susan” or “Sue”, which changes depending on whom I’m speaking to. My mother, for instance, never calls me Sue, and probably never will. My husband, on the other hand, almost exclusively calls me Sue. When he says Susan, it sounds funny.

People have asked me which I prefer, and I usually let them decide, saying it didn’t matter to me. In college, most of my professors took to calling me Sue immediately. In grad school, it was Susan more often than not.

It was a few days ago, when I was at a panel discussion/networking event, where I noticed that I rush through my name when I introduce myself, swallowing the “H” of Hodara. About two weeks ago, someone pointed out the brand confusion on my business cards, which used to list my name as Susan Hodara, with my website and this site as www.suehodara.com as their bases.

I don’t believe in random occurrences, especially not ones so close together. It was when I was channel surfing this weekend and stopped on a presentation of Women and Money with Suze Orman.

Suze related that when she’s speaking at an event, and the presenter wants to acknowledge the women responsible for putting the event together, they hesitate to stand.

She then went on to state that women, when asked to state their names, say “what name?” (regarding whether they should use their married, maiden names).

“Men don’t have these problems!” she roared.

She asked a woman to get up and state her name, and the woman obliged timidly.

Then Suze implored the woman to say her name again, as if she’s addressing a room of 30,000 woman, all of whom paid good money to hear her speak and be inspired by her words.

The woman tried again, and when she uttered her name, strong and sure, she was taken aback by the sound — it was obvious it was the first time she’d heard her own name from her own lips so clear and so true.

And then she asked everyone in the audience to get up and say their names… to the women next to them, in front of, and in back of them. As the camera panned over the audience, it was easy to see who felt empowered, and who felt unsure.

I felt empowered. And made a point of changing my business cards yesterday to say Sue Hodara — alleviating brand confusion.  The size of my name also grew substantially.

And I must say, I felt proud… and even thinking on it now, I’m still feeling proud. When I practiced saying my name aloud yesterday, I took my time saying it, instead of rushing through it, and found the power in my own voice and name.

Saying it loud and proud,

–Sue Hodara

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