At the Moment: All About My Name

I just returned from a long weekend in New York City, where I had the pleasure of reuniting with friends from undergrad and those from St. Louis, who had moved there. I also met several delightful people who I hope to see again. I met my new and darling twin nieces and fed and unsuccessfully burped one of them.

I ate at Michelin starred restaurants Perry Street and Rouge Tomate, both which were delicious. I saw “West Side Story” on Broadway, my first time in Times Square. And I saw an outstanding dance performance by KEIGWIN + Company.

I may have overcompensated in activities for my eleven and a half year absence since this was my first real visit to the city since I moved away on August 20, 1999. A lot of memories came back to me including the history of my name. The following is that history. I figured it was time to get everyone on the same page.


Srisak Veggabul, 1975 – 1976
On September 11, 1975, I was born in an orphanage in Thailand. I remember at one point my (adoptive) mother told me that it was rumored that my biological father was a cop and my biological mother was a grad student from up-country Thailand. I was given the name Srisak Veggabul (to my understanding it was pronounced “See-sok Wech-a-boon”). I believe all of us orphans were given the last name of Veggabul either because that was the last name of the lady who ran the orphanage, the doctor who delivered us, or maybe it was for both reasons – sadly, I do not recall what my mother told me because I do not always do a good job at listening. :-)

Anyhow, I lived in the orphanage for six months before my paternal grandmother, Gram (a.k.a., Dorothy Wilson), visited my maternal aunt, Suchada Holmes, and grandmother, Yai (rhymes with “lie” and means grandmother in Thai). During Gram’s visit my parents had asked that Gram go to the orphanage to inquire about the adoption process. So, Gram went to the orphanage and unbeknownst to them all, was able to choose me right then and there. Gram said she chose me because I was the “longest baby in the orphanage” and she wanted to make sure I would fit in well back in the United States.


Brian Wilson, 1976 – 1998
In 1976, I was legally adopted by Peter and Pun Wilson in the United States and given the name Brian Wilson. I grew up my entire life with references to the Beach Boy Brian Wilson: “You don’t look like Brian Wilson” or “How’s Carnie?” But none of this made me think to change my name.

It was then in the fall of 1998 that my dear friend Peter Nguyen asked me what my initials were because he needed them for the monogrammed business card holder that he gave me as a graduation gift.

“B.W.,” I told him.
“What’s your middle initial?” he asked.
“I don’t a have one,” I replied.
“I guess they can monogram it with just B.W.”
“No, they can’t!” I quickly responded. “Give me a week! I’ll find a middle name!”


B. Hadley Wilson, 1998 – 2006
So for one week I researched names. The first thing I did was see how each letter looked straight forward, i.e., BHW, and then in an actual monogram format, i.e., BWH. But before selecting H, I had narrowed it down to G and D. So from there, I researched the meanings of names or found names that I thought sounded good with Brian and Wilson. By midweek I came up with Greer and Dean. I actually thought Greer was kind of cool for a middle name and I told another friend about Greer and she said, “No, you can’t use Greer. That was the name of that strange model I hooked up with.” Ha! So, I scratched that one and chose Dean.

However, before I committed to Dean, I sent an email to the Brian Wilson fan club and asked if Brian Wilson’s middle name was Dean and that I was hoping it was not because I wanted to differentiate our names. The president of the fan club replied and said, “It’s not Dean but close, it’s Douglas.” Well, here was an opportunity for me to end the Beach Boy jokes but with Dean our initials would have stayed the same, so I called Peter Nguyen and told him I needed another week to find a middle name.

So, the search continued until I found Hadley. It was also during this time that my schoolmates and I were researching prospective employers and providing feedback on each others’ resumes. I had changed my resume from Brian Wilson to Brian H. Wilson and my friends kept asking what the H stood for, so I told them and they all said they liked Hadley. So in 1998, I changed all my information to B. Hadley Wilson and started using Hadley as my primary name.


S. B. Hadley Wilson, 2006 – Present
After my mother passed away in 2005, I felt that I owed it to her to become more engaged with my Thai heritage. I thought about taking Thai lessons but that was just too much of a commitment for me. So, in the summer of 2005, I decided that I would integrate Srisak back into my name. I played around with the four names. Such combinations included B. S. Hadley Wilson – you can imagine my own reaction to that one – and B. Hadley S. Wilson, which looked weird to me. By the end of summer, I finally decided that Srisak should come first since it was my given name.

So, a year later, I finally got around to submitting the name change request forms to the St. Louis courts where they reviewed it, filed it, and told me to come back to appear in front of a judge. They provided two dates for me to choose from to appear in court and the first date was September 11, 2006, which was my birthday, so I knew it was a sign.

And that is how S. B. Hadley Wilson was born!

Best,
Hadley