The Name as Colonial Inheritance and Reclamation

Born Juana Ramírez de Asbaje, she took the religious name Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz—a name given by her convent but which she claimed and made famous through her own accomplishments. Her naming history reflects colonial processes: the Iberian surname, the religious designation, the strategic surname adoption that became her intellectual legacy. For individuals across cultures, names embody colonial history, family migration, forced assimilation, and personal agency. Understanding one's name genealogically reveals structures of power that shaped identity. Some reclaim ancestral names; others keep adopted ones but consciously redefine them. Sor Juana's strategy teaches that a given name need not limit identity—instead, one can fill a name with new meaning through intellectual and artistic achievement. This concept encourages examining the genealogy and power dynamics embedded in personal nomenclature while asserting the right to define what one's name signifies.