Well not exactly. It has nothing to do with my father. I was born Alessandro Lee Bovoso. My mother chose my first name which is the Italian pronounciation of Alexander. Other variations include Alejandro (Spanish), and just about any "Ale" you can think of. The name was also apparently my father's grandmother's maiden name. I think that was coincidental. My mother had no knowledge of it. My middle name, Lee, was a nick name that my Aunt Elizabeth (father's sister) used. It also had the phonetic pronounciation of a family name on my mother's side, Leigh. Now we come to the creme de la creme. My last name. Bovoso. For years I thought Bovoso was an Italian name until I was told by some of my Italian relatives that all Italian names have some meaning. They all are literal. Like Drea DeMatteo = Drea of Matthew. Bovoso has no meaning. I asked my father about this and he mentioned that the name was most likely Albanese (in this case pronounced Albanayse). Meaning that one of our ancestors came from Albania. Apparently large segment off the Italian population has this in common. See http://www.answers.com/topic/arb-resh for more information. So more likely than not Bovoso is a name of Albanian ancestry.

OK. With the context laid out let me tell you my only dilemma with my given surname. I grew up in New York City where, at the time, the majority of Spanish speakers were from the Caribbean. When I moved to California I became aware that terminology in Spanish changes from region to region. In California the majority of Spanish speakers are from Mexico and Central America (Mexico is in North America for those of you who flunked geography). It was out here that I found out my last name is waaaaayyy to close in pronounciation to a word that no one wants to be called in Spanish. Baboso. For those of you who can't translate this wonderful word, it roughly means, "slobbering idiot." Imagine my pleasure when I found this out! To make matters worse I wind up moving to Los Angeles which has a 40 percent Latino population. Everywhere I have to give my legal name there is someone ready to laugh at me.

One time I had run out of gas on the side of the road and called AAA to come help me out. After a short wait a tow truck shows up ready to help. The driver gets out and already he's laughing.

"What's your name?", he says chuckling away.

With a deep sigh I say, "Alessandro."

"No, I mean your last name. Cause they told me that A. Baboso was in trouble and needed help!" The driver laughed so hard I almost had to pick him off the ground to save him from choking on his own saliva.

Oh it's endless down here. Let me tell you. Just today I had to pick up some prescription cream for my butt (I spare you the details of this one) at Rite Aid. The pharmacy usually has 3-4 employees working. There is an Indian man, black woman, Latino woman, and an Asian pharmacist. Without fail the Latino woman will always wind up helping me out.

"Last name?", she said.

"Bovoso", I said, trying my best to pronounce the O's clearly.

She turned around to search for the prescription and was polite enough about it. When she came back with my drugs I swear to you that I could see a trickle of blood protruding from her lip due to all the biting she must have done.

So as you can imagine I use Alessandro Ashanti where ever I can. I'll give you the low down on the Ashanti name another time.