Named

LoveReading Says

“What's in a name?” This Shakespeare-coined question lies at the heart of Camilla Balshaw’s Named — a thought-provoking memoir of the author’s exploration of her own identity through the lens of a complex relationship with her own name. 

And the answer to that question, as Balshaw reveals in eloquently engaging style, is that everything is in a name. As she writes in the Introduction, “Our names are entwined with our identity. They are repeated in countless transactions, conversations and written correspondence…Without them, how would we function as a society?” But beyond that, names are tied to our very being, to who we are — the author, for example, grew up with an entirely different name, and she’s been named differently through her life. 

Framed through sharing her own story — growing up with a Jamaican mother, and estranged from her Nigerian father — Balshaw also shines a light on naming practices in a diversity of cultures, showing how names interplay with class and race, and impact our chance of social mobility. 

In short, Named is a touching, enlightening book for readers who relish finding fresh ways to view the world through non-fiction.

Joanne Owen

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