Email to a friend:
“Huh, Joo Yun. Given to me by my family.
The story, as I have read it to be, my birth mother Ms. Choi, was young, 25/26. She left home to go to the capital to make money. She had no college education. She began working in a bar. She eventually began a relationship with the owner. Mr. Huh. He was 37/38 and was university educated. They were together for a year before Ms. Choi found out that Mr. Huh was a married man. When Mr. Huh found out that Ms. Choi was pregnant, he declined any responsibility and told her to get an abortion. Ms. Choi returned home, and had her baby there. She tried to keep her child, but such a task was difficult for an unmarried mother. After 6 months or so, she relinquished her child to foster care.
It appears that for a few weeks I was in hospital for sepsis, enterocolitis, and what is listed as just “URZ.” They say that I babbled and laughed and cried as an infant. I slept a lot, except for feeding, bathing, and playing times. I cried through bath time. I was shy around strangers, but recognized familiar voices. I recognized my own name.
I always tell people that my first word was “no.” That’s what my parents say. But apparently my first word was “omma,” which is “mother.”
A month or two after hospital, I came to America. My mother says that I was the best birthday present of her life. On the morning of her birthday, my family got a call that I would be arriving the next day. My brother was actually excited. He bought me a toy. Some stuffed animal. When I got to them he excitedly gave it to me. As the story goes, I apparently threw it across the room.
I became Rosanna Joo Hoskins. As I had told you, it seemed typical that adopted children are given their Korean family name as their middle name. Unfortunately, my family name was Huh (pronounced Who). My parents were not inclined to have me called Rosanna Who Hoskins. So they chose a different portion of my Korean name.
My mother always laments that my brother and I were not given the names she wanted us to have. Sebastian and Hazel. We shudder to imagine what strange fate we might be living now. Hazel Huh Hoskins… Father piped up, and saved us from whatever 80’s BBC period drama my mother had been living.
Rosanna Joo Hoskins.
My American name, my Korean name, and my English name.

And there you have the story of a name. I am not sure I have ever told it like this to anyone before.”