The Idea Of An English Name 

I began to find the idea of an English name absurd since I started reading Africanist novels and autobiographies – books steeped in the idea of what it means to be African, of feeling rooted in one’s own skin, and of refusing to be apologetic to have been born a black man. Many people consider me as the strange one, and I do not blame them. Sometimes I also accept the fact that I’m strange. In many ways. I do not like to follow the crowd, and that is a very strange thing in this modern world. I’ve been doing some research on what it means to be an old soul, and all the things I’ve learned about being an old soul is not farfetched in my own personal life. Interesting that one could be something without having the language to express it. After I wrote a very strange poem which was accepted and published by Dominique Literary Magazine in the United States I began to study what those words actually mean – Old Wise Soul – which is also the title of my poem. It was one of those poems that came unexpectedly, like a revelation, and I thought it was a silly poem after writing it. It’s about reincarnation and the feeling of ancestral presence, the strong knowledge that you are never alone, that your ancestors are always present with you, in you. The poem was not only accepted, I was asked to record my voice reciting it. That too, was also published. I then began to think about how I was the silly one, not knowing the weight of what I had written. To cure my silliness, I began to research what it means to be an old soul.

But today I want to talk about the “Dominion” I added to my names. A few years ago I decided I wouldn’t pick up another English name because my first name is considered English, though originally a Hebrew name, but Dominion is no ordinary name. It’s my personal revelation. I started using it as a middle name when I was about to sit for my SSCE. They kept asking for a middle name, then one day, like revelation, I got the name “Dominion”. I fought with the word or name. I wanted no English name but here I was receiving an English name for myself. The name persisted, strongly so. With everything in me, I couldn’t fight it off. That was how I became Isaac Dominion Aju. In the WAEC form I spelled in Isaac Dominion Aju.

Still, I wasn’t convinced.
After secondary school I stopped using Dominion. I went with Isaac Aju. Dominion sat in my WAEC certificate, unused in real life. But the name came back many months after my story was published for the first time. On a quiet evening in mid 2025 I sent out a story for the first time as Isaac Dominion Aju. I had to rule out the strict idea of not having another English name. I’m still Africanist in worldview, still surprised when African editors send beautiful mails of acceptance. Maybe having or not having an English name isn’t the problem here. Maybe the main point is to know who you are, to occupy your space in the world, to be a citizen of the world while not denying your roots.

Isaac Dominion Aju was nominated for the Best Of The Net and Pushcart Prize in 2025. He currently lives in Nigeria where he works as a fashion designer, specializing in men’s attire. He has appeared in various international journals including Poetry X Hunger, Cajun Mutt Press and All Your Poems Anthology. He was the first Nigerian poet to appear on Flapper Press Poetry Cafe.