What's in a Nathan?

In one of the posts on the Vouched blog under the label “Awful Interviews,” Christopher Newgent asks poet Nate Pritts, “Should I call you Nate or Nathan? Sometimes I introduce myself as Christopher and people call me Chris, and I punch their mouths. I have hard punches.” What follows is an enlightening and extensive answer, most of which I will quote:

My given name is Nathan & when I first started writing poems & stories, I was calling myself Nathan. However, no one called me Nathan in real life – everyone called me Nate, everyone has always called me Nate [… but] the name “Nathan” seemed like it had the right center of gravity, the proper level of careful diction & studious energy. Nathan Pritts wrote poems about the moon, or about deer running through field grass. […] Poems were things that guys named Nathan wrote in their barn or somewhere out on the far reaches of their property while contemplating the majesty of a spotted owl.

But I started to have a sense that it was really difficult to write a poem about a spotted owl if, in fact, you had never seen a spotted owl.

So I started writing poems that were more about me – a guy named Nate […] I started to understand that a poem was a dynamic system that depended on a connection to the vital & coursing elements of my own actual life as it had been lived & as I was currently living it. So Nathan Pritts retired – from writing poems, for sure, & mostly retired from life as well. He’s lying in a hammock on William Duffy’s farm, very happy & smug & knowing & soulful. Nate Pritts is still alive & writing poems that reflect his complete & utter confusion about being alive in language that struggles to pin down exact & emotional statements about a world that is constantly forcing him to THINK rather than FEEL.

So: call me Nate.

Like Nate, my given name is Nathan. But most everyone also calls me Nate. I introduce myself as Nate, Nate is the name I type on academic papers, my Facebook page says Nate, and a popular shirt reads, “I Hate Nate Logan!” Nate is everywhere for me.

But when my poems go out into the world though, I use Nathan. When I've been lucky enough to be introduced at readings, I write Nathan in the bio. When women get mad at me, they say Nathan. What is the difference between Nate and Nathan?

On some level, I agree with Nate's explanation: “'Nathan' seemed like it had the right center of gravity, the proper level of careful diction & studious energy.” Though I have never written poems about the moon or wildlife running through grass, “Nathan” fits like a cozy glove. “Nate” is missing something...something intangible that I can't put my finger on. Do I think that Nate sounds less respectable or reputable? No, not at all. Does “Nate Logan” sound worse/better/about the same as “Nathan Logan?” I don't think it sounds worse, it just sounds different.

Some of Nate's concerns are wrapped up in my own, but at this point in my life, I am happy to keep Nathan around. I don't have anxiety about having to choose between Nathan and Nate, but it is a choice I make, which implies that there are some decisions being made based on criteria, conscious or unconscious. It doesn't seem that Nate had “anxiety” about this either, but based his choice of name on larger concerns.

The question of name is something that I'm going to continue to think about. Maybe I will have an answer as insightful as Nate's someday. But until then, keep an eye open for the “Eight Nate's” or “Nine Nate's” reading. That's where you'll find me, cheering from the Nathan bench.