The Story Behind the name: Bernard Michael Rochford

Bernard Michael Rochford is my name. Bernard. Michael. Rochford. Do you ever have the experience of saying a word so many times it loses its meaning? That’s how I felt about my name for the first 40 years of my life. I had never really given it a second thought, like a fish trying to understand what water is.

But one day, while working as an Osteopath in Brisbane, one of my patients pointed out that my name derived from the Normans in Ireland.

Ireland? Rochford is an Irish name?

My entire family, on both my mother and father’s side, were from England. I’d always been told growing up that I was English through and through, except for maybe a splash of French.

To my surprise, I Googled it, and the patient was right. The name Rochford indeed derived from the Normans in Ireland.

It may sound silly, but this revelation gave me something like an identity crisis. The essence of who I am, the bands I like, the foods I eat, even the flaws I have, I often ascribe - in part - to being English.

But what if my preference for mashed potatoes, or tea, or Pink Floyd…what if these interests aren’t as a result of my English blood, but rather, my Irish side?

What’s more, the English and the Irish had a notoriously tumultuous relationship throughout history, with the Irish being indentured servants throughout England and Australia. It’s almost like watching your parents fight, except both parents (England and Ireland) live inside of me, and I am somewhere in the middle.

In some ways, a name means nothing. I didn’t choose it, I’m too lazy (and stubborn) to change it, and it’s effectively just a veneer over the top of who I actually am as a multifaceted person. In another sense, a name (mostly your surname) reflects a long line of lineage; of ancestry; of who you are, right down to the code of your genetic makeup. In some ways, your name is etched into the very fabric of your DNA, like a carving into a rock wall.

My name is Bernard Michael Rochford. Bernard. Michael. Rochford.

I am a fish that knows it’s swimming in water.