Dafne

My name is Dafne, a variation of Daphne from the Greek myth about the nymph Daphne being transfigured into a tree to escape Apollo's creepy love-obsession with her. My family is Mexican, and I was born in Mexico, which is why I was named the F-letter version rather than 'ph', as P and H together do not make an 'F' sound in Spanish. I was named this because my father was/is a merchant marine, and was working in Chile when my mother was pregnant with me, where he met a woman named Dafne, who was in turn named Dafne because her mother was reading a book by Daphne du Maurier when she was pregnant with her. My dad liked her name and passed it on to me.

I don't really keep in touch with my father, sometimes I wonder about this other lady Dafne and what she looked like, what she was like. I had a hard time with my name when I moved to the United States when I was young because people assumed my parents just didn't know how to spell the "real" version of it, but I like it ok now, I never have to worry about there being other people with my name. I have also recently taken to being called "Daf" because I think it looks cute- only three little letters. I also like the way it is pronounced in German, with an a-umlaut at the end, Dafnae, or "Daf-nuh"- it is not as harsh as the Spanish Daf-NEH but not as too-sweet as the English "Daf-nee."

DAFNE (with an F) is also the name of the first-ever Opera, but the music for it has been lost!

-Dafne, Greensboro, NC