To be one name or not to be one name?

Okay, so is the one name thing an ego trip or what?  Well, actually no.  It's not an ego thing at all.  I'm very proud of my name and it actually has a sincere meaning to me that I'll share with you if you care to know.

My father passed away when I was only 2 months & 2 days old.  So, of course, I never got to know him.  At every opportunity I got, I'd jump at the chance to learn more about my father.  People told me very often that he had many friends, he was well liked and made everyone laugh.  People also told me that he liked to fix cars, something I could never do because I hate getting my hands dirty.  Well, at least I used to never get my hands dirty until this crazy theatre thing came into my life.   Well anyway, I realized that my father and I had a lot in common.  I love to make people laugh, love having lotsa friends and instead of fixing cars, I can fix computers.

In my early teens my mom told me a story that will always be with me.  She said that my father was working (he was a bus driver for Greyhound) when she went into the hospital to have me.  By the time he got there, I was already born and in her arms.   He came into her room and was of course extremely pleased with his new baby boy (he had three other girls from a previous marriage).  As he held me, he looked down at her and asked what she was going to call this little guy.  She told him that his new name (my fathers) would be (secret first & middle name here) Trent, Senior and I would be called (secret first & middle name here) Trent, Junior.  Upon hearing this news, his eyes began to tear up.

That's why I'm proud of my name.  If it sounds silly, oh well.  I guess I'm sentimental that way.  So now, the fun thing is that I keep the rest of my name secret except for a chosen few.  I don't know why it's such a big deal, I think it's nothing special, just a fun and different thing to do.  In this crazy world of acting, where you're up against a million people fighting for the same job, you gotta be different.  Maybe this is one of my ways to be different.  Who knows?

As a side note:  From one of those "we were way too young to get married and we'll be divorced in two years" marriages, I had a son on December 7, 1987.  I named him (secret first & middle name here) Trent, III.  An odd thing is that my father always went by our middle name, I go by our last name and my son goes by our first name.  Imagine that.