My name in till recently has been Caitlin Thomson. “Thomson without a P.” A line I have repeated many times, and will live to repeat many more. When I was younger, people would often try and convince me that I was spelling my own last name incorrectly. Now that I am older, people instead insist on correcting my pronunciation, believing that if Thomson isn’t spelled with P, you should not pronounce the N at the end either. Often, even after spelling it correctly multiple times, literary journals manage to spell my name wrong at least once.

In Graduate school when I was a poetry editor at the literary magazine Lumina, my co-editor Megan Williams and I chose to publish a number of poet’s based only on their poems. Their names were hidden from us. We chose by complete accident to publish the work of a Caitlin Thompson. The poem she submitted was good. Our senior editor had to write a part into the introduction explaining the situation. When I started to submit my own work again that spring, I always included the Elizabeth.

In May, I got married. I chose to legally change my name to Caitlin Jans. A name I enjoy and fully embrace. However I continue to write and teach under the name Thomson. I had worked so hard to publish my work in the last year, that it seemed silly to change my pen name. Also, my parents have helped me grow in so many ways as an artists, it would be strange change my ‘public’ name away from theirs.

So I still am a Thomson without a p, in spite of Google’s best efforts.