Jodi Powell

Welcome to The Moth.

I'm Jody Powell.

I've thought a lot about the names of things.

What's in a name?

How does it survive time, distance, language, and the stories we tell about it?

Does it change as it travels, like a game of telephone?

A vowel shifts, a sound drops, something gets lost, or something new is found in translation.

There's an old proverb that says, your name is your first story.

And I think that's true.

On this episode, we have two stories about names.

The names of people, the names of concepts, and how naming can shape the essence of the thing.

First up is Elise McInerney, who told this at a Melbourne Story Slam where the theme was green.

Here's Elise, live at the Moth.

That was Elise McInerney.

Elise is the older sister to five siblings, an aunt to three nibblings, and a willing servant to two cats.

When she's not on the Melbourne Moth Story Slam stage, she works in social policy or can be found snorkelling along Melbourne's beaches.

We asked her if her feelings about her name have changed since telling the story, and she said that since then, she and her five siblings now have four surnames between them all.

But family is still where she feels the strongest sense of belonging.

She's also become an aunt, with two nieces and a nephew, and can't wait to take them traveling one day so they can find their own places in the world that make them feel at home.

Elise's story had me thinking about my name.