It was not until 1946 when my grandmother received a copy of the revised birth certificate in the mail from my father and blurted out to me 'That ain't your name,' that I really became aware of the problems. She quickly added, 'Your mother, she never got it right neither.'"
This article appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.
Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.