I do not like my given name. That’s it, I have said it. The issue with me not liking my name has been around for a while. You do not choose your name, for it is given to you by your parents, who are not always sane or creative. It wasn’t my mom, who had different names in mind for her baby, but my father who named me Yury. As he explained later, I was named after the guy who saved his life in the army. Yury is not a bad name, but I don’t think it suits me.
I have been looking for a new name, which matches my character, for quite some time. There have been numerous options, but nothing has really stuck. Maybe, I have never been stubborn and determined enough to work hard on possessing any of those names; therefore, I am still Yury. Since I moved to Canada, the issue has became a burning one because Slavic names are hard to spell and difficult to pronounce. It is especially true for my last name: Ruzhyev.
I have a stage name, given to me in Canada, Yura, which I use in my show. For North Americans, Yura sounds feminine, for it ends with an A. I am fine with that, although its not true. Yura is just a short version of my Russian name, Yury. It doesn’t make sense in English spelling, but it does in Russian. See for yourself -- this is how it looks in Cyrillic: Юрий vs Юра.
Picking random names and playing with them is what I have been doing for several years now. Among many names that I have tried over the years only Nikita and Eric were somewhat suitable. These names, used in different periods of my life, didn’t last. I don’t remember how I came up with the name Maxime, but it’s the name that has lasted the longest time. Maxime, which sounds sexy, also has no reference to my heritage, nor to my country of origin. This name could be French, British or Russian; it is mysterious, and at the same time it sounds masculine and sexy. Did I mention that already?
I was desperate to find my new name, and I was looking for it everywhere. When walking around San Francisco, a beautiful city on the West coast, I noticed that a lot of streets have cute human names. I decided that I should bump into my new name on one of the streets, and let fortune lead the way. It was my last day in San Francisco, so I was desperate to find the right street with the right name. As I was walking closer to the subway to catch a train to the airport, I saw a street named Julian, such a good name to have. Julian sounds English and resembles my given name, but I still didn’t have my last name. As I was looking around, I noticed a street perpendicular to Julian street, a street named Rondel. Here it was: Julian Rondel. Was the search over? Was Julian Rondel my new name, given to my by fortune? I didn’t know if this name was the one, but at least I had a back-up plan. Still, I was desperate to create my very own name all by myself, without any help from providence.
I have been woking on translating and adapting my last name, Ruzhyev, into English. After several options like Rouge, Rough, and Rifleman, which is the literal translation of my last name, I came up with Rosh. It is similar to posh and it sounds a little bit like my original surname; therefore, I liked it. A friend of mine, a French girl, suggested to add a letter C to the name to make it more creative -- Rocsh. Maxime Rocsh was good, but it was not perfect. Something was still missing, so the search was still on. I am my mom’s son. She has had a huge impact on me, on my upbringing, and my life; moreover, I love her very much and would be proud to carry her name, Galina. After losing the last letter A, to make it more masculine, the name became Galin.
Was the search over? Since I still had doubts, I looked up the meanings of all the mentioned names in a book with babies’ names. Julian means youthful, Yury means “earth worker”, and Maxime means the “greatest’; consequently, I choose Maxime. The search was over, and now I can concentrate on owning and getting comfortable with my new name: Maxime Galin-Rocsh.
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