November 2017: All in a Name | Two Q’s

In English, one of the most underused letters in the alphabet is Q. While there are several students at Armijo who have last names that start with this uncommon letter, on a campus with over 2300 students, only two have it at the beginning of their first name.

Q’mani DiFrancia said that his parents liked the letter Q. They teamed it with the word “many” because it sounded good. While his name is unique on Armijo’s campus, DiFrancia said that he has met at least three other people who share his name. Most people, however, recognize that it is unusual when they first hear it, and often respond with, “That is different!” It seems that they are always asking him to spell it out when he introduces himself.

DiFrancia likes to listen to rap and classic rap. He is thinking about joining the track and field team in the spring and, when he graduates, he knows that he wants to find a good job but that time is still several months away.

Queen Hollison Newman is part of a royal family. “My brother’s name is King,” she said. “My mom named me after my first cousin who’s middle name is Queen.” So far, Newman has not met any other girls named Queen. It’s easy to spell, but people generally think it is a cool name, a pretty name.

Newman likes all types of music. She’s not involved in any sports or clubs but, as a freshman, she has plenty of time to start finding ways to fit in on campus. She’s also not sure what she wants to do when she graduates.

While Q’mani was named with the idea of many and he has met others with his name, Queen’s name has other variations, but even they are underrepresented on campus. Of the ten names that mean Queen on the website http://www.momjunction.com/articles/baby-girl-names-inspired-by-queens_00355787/#gref, only Regina is a name found at Armijo. Senior Regina Palacios was highlighted as the All in a Name feature in January 2016’s Armijo Signal.