Introductions

My name is Eugene, and that's what most people call me. Some of them know that my real name is actually Evgeny, which is Russian for Eugene. Whenever I introduce myself in any western country, be it the USA, England, France, Germany or Poland - and I normally say Eugene, Eugen, Eugeniusz or Eugenio - people always tell me, 'I have a great-grandfather named Eugene' or 'my late uncle's middle name was Eugene'. It just seems that Eugene is an archaic name in any language except perhaps Russian. No thanks to my parents who completely failed to predict my eventual immigration to the US.



Eugenus is a concoction of one of my ex-girlfriends, which I personally rather like. I, of course, would rather have her call me Eugenius, but oh well, can't be too demanding. I think Eugenus sounds funny in an even more old-fashioned sort of way than Eugene. And that's good enough for me.