What’s in a Name? Eight Stories From Our MERG Lunch Table

By Miylie Roan

Back in June for Pride, Lawline’s Minority Employee Resource Group (MERG) hosted a build your own flag workshop and people loved it! For our September event, we kept that same spirit but went a little deeper: share the story behind your name. Here is what we learned.

Michele Richman, Chief People Officer, has a Hebrew name, Mala, which means queen. She took her queen duties very seriously growing up. Her dad says Michele came from the Beatles song, and her middle name, Anne, honors her grandfather Albert.

Arika Dallas, Marketing Specialist, came with multiple stories. Her middle name, Ryan, comes from her dad and a long line of Ryans in her family. Her first name came from a baby her mom cared for in a baby care class at a vocational high school. The top contenders were Jocelyn, which happens to be the name of her manager, and Madison. Her dad was firmly against Madison, then had a daughter ten years later and named her Madison.

Miylie Roan, Senior HR Generalist, real name is Mieliekk, was named after the actor Malik Yoba. She has three middle names that honor her mom, her grandmother, and uncle. In 8th grade, a classmate asked her name, but she was too shy to speak up, and they heard Miylie, not Mieliekk. It stuck!

Meredith Cohen-Pilat, Director of Customer Experience, has the Hebrew name Nikal. Her parents wanted something unique that was not made up, and they did not want five Michelles in her kindergarten class. She and her brother Brian Michael have reversed initials, which her mom swears was an accident. She named her son Blake Alexander, borrowing her own middle name.

Dan Anslow-O’Rourke, Production Manager, is Daniel Victor, the third in his family line. He loved having the Roman numeral, like earning letters after his name. With so many Dans in the family, they went with big Dan, medium Dan, and little Danny (he’s little Danny).

Amanda Knittel, Finance Manager, was supposed to be Charles Andrew. When she arrived, her dad made a mad dash to move everything out of the boy’s room. Amanda came from Amanda Street in Springfield, where her parents once looked at a house, and Jean honors her Aunt Cindy Jean. She went by AJ, then Mandy. Her dad called her “Demandy.”

Alyssa Mrzljak, Director of Business Operations, is named after Alyssa Milano because her mom was obsessed with Who’s the Boss. As a kid she could not say her middle name, Michelle, so she became Miffy, and her dad still calls her that. She now collects Miffy bunnies. Her son Milo also answers to Meatloaf.

Ariel Johnson-Pena, Attorney Compliance Lead, was not named after the mermaid. Her middle name came from a French figure skater, and the spelling changed somewhere along the way at the Social Security office, which also gave her the hyphen she did not ask for. Her son Auggie carries family names without having to be a third, and her daughter is Aerilyn Scout.