What's in a name?

My name is Breal (pronounced Bree-Al, but sometimes I like to mix things up and pronounce it like Brielle). 

The story of how I got my name:  My parents, Brenda and Alan, upon discovering that they are newly expecting parents they did what any normal excited parents would do and started discussing baby names.  My mom's vote was for Jodi.  Jo from her mom's name Joan and Di from her dad's name Dick.  My dad refused and said "I will not name my baby after a divorced couple".  I'm convinced of the following scenario: Mom "But I love the name Jodi!  I've wanted to name my daughter that for years!"  Dad, in a joking yet exasperated tone, "Still not going with the name... why don't we just call her Albre or Breal or something with our names?!"  My mom, being the unique and wonderful woman that she is, fell in love with the name Breal.

When I was pretty small my Uncle Rick came to visit and started calling me Be Real (Breal, B-real, get it?).  So from now on whenever I spell my name for someone it goes like this, "B like bravo. R like Romeo. E like Echo.  A like Alpha. L like Lima.  Looks like B-real."

As a young teenager I was promptly sucked into the wonderful world of myspace.  The craze about that time was to put your name in the Google search and see what you came up with.  Intrigued I went to Google and typed in Breal Ross.  Nothing.  I shortened it to just Breal.  Besides that "Did you mean Bread?" or "Did you mean Breast?" all I could find was one hit with the actual word Breal in it.  It was some weird math theory or something.  I was not impressed.  It wasn't until I discovered facebook that I got the grand idea of searching for other people with the name Breal.  I was shocked at what I found.  Besides me being one of the first Breal's there the list mainly consisted of African American men.  Pause.  MEN?!  Humph.  I guess I'm unique, I'm the only white female Breal I can find.

There is one instance though....  My sister, Andi, and I were shopping in our favorite store Buckle.  Dazzled by the XX long jeans (37 and a half inch inseam thank you!) and their fabulous styles we were constantly calling each other over to come look at our findings.  One time, when Andi hollered "Breal!  Come look at this sweater!" this young blonde lady looked up and glared at her.  We both took note of the weird look and brushed it off.  When Andi called me over once again, and we got the same result from the blonde, by then we were just giggling about the whole thing.  The blonde then timidly walked over to us, looked straight at me, and said "Is your name Breal?"
"Yes"
"Mine TOO!"
Besides the tiny difference of how we spell our names: Breal vs Brielle.  We had never personally met another Breal/Brielle before and chatted for a few minutes before continuing on our shopping quest.

Don't get me wrong.  I love having a unique and different name.  I'm used to people always mispronouncing or just mumbling my name and I have given up on correcting them or repeating my name for thier sake.  With that being said, my husband (Jessie) and I will not be naming our daughter Bessie or any other mixture that you can think of.  This is not a tradition I plan on continuing....