Hi friend,
This week’s guest has two origin stories for his name, and they do not agree with each other. His father said it was part Latin and meant something like rising warrior. His mother said it was an oil sheen situation. Both of them delivered their version with total confidence. I picked the mother’s version. You will too. Dysheen Davis is a photographer based in Columbus, originally from Queens. We met while volunteering at an HR event, both of us behind cameras, and I knew within about five minutes that I wanted him on the podcast. Then he told me his name and I was fully sold.
The Easter baby
Dysheen was born on Easter. His mother, very pregnant, cooked the entire holiday dinner herself and finished hours early. Then she got ready for her guests. She dyed her hair, washed it out, looked great, and reached for the oil sheen. That is when something felt off in her belly. Her words to him later were roughly this: you decided you wanted to come out, maybe you didn’t like the sheen, but you came out, so we named you in honor of it. He told me it kills at parties. I believe him.
The kid version of the story was not as funny
Here is the part that stuck with me. At 10 or 11, Dysheen went to his dad and asked why he couldn’t have a regular name. Teachers took half a year to get it right. Kids were creative in the worst way (soft sheen, oil sheen, you name it). He did not love it back then. He told me he even preferred the culture up north, where a name like Alejandro is just a name, to the South, where everyone seemed to be a Tim or a John. And now he says he would not change it for anything. That shift is the whole episode. Same name, same story, completely different feeling at 11 and at 40-something.
My little research find
You know I can’t help myself, so I looked up the meaning. It’s not spelled exactly like his name, but swap a couple of letters and you land on a name that means sight or vision. Tell that to a man who has built his life around photography, landscapes, underwater work, and drones. His reaction: that hits the nail on the head. Bonus find: the back half of his name, Sheen, means light or radiance in Punjabi. You need light for vision. I’m just saying the universe was not subtle here. (He also learned on a cruise ship that his name sounds like a Jamaican food item. A tasty one, thankfully.)
The answer I keep thinking about
I asked him whether the meaning of his name shows up in how he sees the world. He did not even hesitate. He told me he has always seen things differently. While his brothers were into music, he was drawing. He could smell a storm coming ten minutes before anyone believed him. In graphic design he would see that something wasn’t working while everyone else said it looked perfect. And then he said the line I wrote down: it’s so boring to be like everybody else. Then he flipped the question on me and asked when I knew I was different. Nobody had ever asked me that. I loved it. (Spoiler: it involves a teacher on the first day of school, a name that looks phonetic, and nobody pronouncing it correctly.)
The part we should not skip
We also talked about something less cute. His grandmother, an English professor, was not a fan of his name, and not out of spite. She knew what a name like his can do to a resume. Dysheen described how some employers see a name like his and toss the application before reading a single qualification, while Tim Davis walks right in. He also shared a story from his college years about cutting his dreadlocks to land a job. He went back to an employer who had barely looked at him, and they did not even recognize him. Same person, same skills, different haircut. I am glad we talked about it. Name bias in hiring is real, and anyone who works in or around HR should be sitting with it.
Why God renames people
I asked about Genesis, where Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah. His take: it is a transition. You shed the old skin, and the name goes with it. Caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly. I could not agree more.
If you’ve only got five minutes…
02:08 Do you know what your name means?
05:01 The vision connection (and the light)
10:05 The Easter baby story
15:02 Wishing for a different name growing up
17:18 The name he would pick if he had to change it
27:22 What a name can do to a resume
32:25 Why names change in the Bible
Two things to try this week…
1. Ask the person who named you for the real story. Not the polished version. The one with the details. Dysheen’s mom gave him a story he has been telling for decades, and he said she told him to take it with a grain of salt.
2. Look up the meaning of your name, then change a letter or two and look again. You might be surprised what comes back.
Go see Dysheen’s work... https://www.instagram.com/3dm_photography/?hl=en
His Instagram link is above and also in the episode notes, and the photography is worth the follow. If you are anywhere near Columbus, Fashion Week Columbus runs November 8 through the 14th, and he will be shooting for Getty Images at two of the shows. Get tickets, go see some fashion.
Until next time, say your name out loud like you mean it.
Until next time,
Jayma (aka your "Paradigm Shifter")
