What's in a name?

I recently ate dinner with a new "bosom friend" I think. She is a very interesting woman who interestingly enough uses a name that she gave herself herself in college. As a joke at a ward activity she wrote Helga on her nametag and began to use that name in the ward. The ward boundaries changed and she decided to change her name when she found herself in the other ward. She began introducing herself with her new name, and people would ask "is that short for something?" She'd say yes it's short for Gertrude, but that isn't her name at all. But the name stuck.

In relating this to me, she also mentioned that at one point her bishop was asked by a friend why she went by that name. The bishop said that she was hiding behind her name. She didn't really agree with that until she moved to San Antonio. San Antonio is for her what Lubbock was for me. A very lonely and isolating place with few feelings of fitting in. She said her adopted name became something she hides behind.  Her real name starts with a K and that's the name all her family use, always has. She said that most people don't know who she really is because she doesn't let them know K.

We proceeded to talk late into the night of profound things. It was very fomenting conversation. I hope that we become good friends and that some day in natural conversation K just falls out of me like I always knew her.