The Powerful Y

Portland's free weekly Willamette Week last week:

"In his latest message from a British Columbia jail, Oregon environmental activist Tre Arrow says he's adding a "y" to his first name. Why? "Adding the 'y' activates my fullest potential to manifest my true destiny," Arrow tells supporters in a Sept. 24 email. Arrow says he made his decision based on cabalistic philosophy , which teaches there is a direct connection between a person's name and the conditions of his or her life, such as health, job and personal fulfillment. "I know my true destiny is to be free," says Arrow, who was born Michael Scarpitti. "Trey" Arrow is in jail in Victoria, B.C., fighting extradition to Oregon, where the FBI wants him to stand trial for a pair of 2001 arsons."

A story of Name

In December 2001, I legally changed my name to Carye Bye from by birth name, Carrie Johnson). One of the Y's in my name came quite early (though not legally), I started spelling my first name with a Y since age 16 when a friend's brother gave me a drawing of ducks in a pond dedicated: To Carye. Instantly I loved this spelling and knew it was how my name should be spelled. The 2nd Y came later. The last name Bye is my grandmother's maiden name - a name that comes from a farmstead village in Norway. When my grandmother passed in late 2000, I thought a lot about my family's Scandinavian history, and began to use the name Carye Bye as my photography name. When I legally changed my last name, I also legally changed my first name. I've always been attracted to Y's in a name, and I feel blessed to know have two.

Another interesting story is, my nickname used to be Carye Bee during my college years and after during the 1990s. When I found out that the Norwegian pronunciation of Bye is actually "Bee" I knew it was meant to be.