Jennie Haniver

Track #2 on evolution is Jennie Haniver. There are many hidden meanings in this name, but the most obvious two are based on old sea legends … and an obscure 70’s movie called The Bermuda Depths.

Some of you might have sort of a vague idea what I’m talking about, but if I said “That movie with the giant turtle where the girl’s eyes turned green” you’d catch on much quicker.

Actually, the real Jenny Haniver was a fake, dried “specimen” of a sea monster or mythological creature, made from the dried bodies of skates and rays, sold by sailors in Antwerp. Therefore, this “girl of Antwerp” (jeune d’Anvers) acquired an anglicized version of the French name: Jenny Haniver.

This is the thing we have in common. I am a Creek Indian; my last name is unique–it is not Scottish, or Irish, or anything else you’d expect from the “Mc.” My ancestor, Cosa Fixico (in the Creek Language, this would be spelled Cosv Fekseko) had his name anglicized during Indian removal to the west. His nickname was “Mac”; the person who put him on the tribal rolls entered his name as “McCosar”–a completely new name.

They just didn’t care about the facts. I suppose they figured the high death toll of the forced exodus to Oklahoma would take care of clerical errors such as this.

Some of my relatives have reverted their names to Fixico; I have not. I think it is useful to remember that once your life is reduced to an entry in an uncaring clerk’s ledger, anything can happen.