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Growing up in the \u201980s in the suburbs of Melbourne, nobody was called Jacinta. I had that market cornered. Unlike my friend Kate, who would need to be addressed by her full name to differentiate her from all the other Kates in our class, I was the only Jacinta. It made me feel like Madonna, who didn\u2019t need a surname clarification either.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t all smooth sailing, though. For some reason, maybe it was because there wasn\u2019t enough chloride in the water in the \u201980s and it seemed most of us hadn\u2019t developed enough lip strength to pronounce our Ts, my name was often morphed into Jacinnnnnah. I didn\u2019t mind so much because the mispronunciation was all mine too; I didn\u2019t have to share.<\/p>\n
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Jacinta Allan, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Jacinta Parsons and Jacinda Ardern.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>The Age<\/cite><\/p>\n On the rare occasion I would run into another \u201cJacinta\u201d, we\u2019d look at each other with a knowing that we belonged to something rare. \u201cDo most people call you Jacinnnnah?\u201d we would laugh. And then we\u2019d comment on how special the name was and that the other Jacinta was one of the first we\u2019d ever met. How delightful, we\u2019d giggle, we were very, very special, weren\u2019t we?<\/p>\n Then, something terrible happened. The third ever female prime minister of New Zealand had parents who for some reason had dispensed with the T, gone straight for sloppy lips and named her JacinDa ArDern. I went to bed on October 16, 2017, rarefied and woke up the next morning as a bastardised version of my former self. Suddenly, no longer special, I started to get called JacinDa.<\/p>\n It was around this time that I met an ally. I had been sending emails to myself (don\u2019t ask) but had been clumsy with the email address and had been sending them to another Jacinta Parsons. After a long and confused courtship, we each decided not to kill off the other Jacinta Parsons, and instead joined forces. A friendship was born. The other Jacinta Parsons, who happens to be a New Zealand resident, is cooler than I am. But I feel like she\u2019s improved our brand, so I don\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n And then, just when things had started to recover after JacinDa ArDern resigned, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rose in the national consciousness as the Voice referendum debate kicked off.<\/p>\n Then our mate Dan had to go and throw another spanner in the works. At 5pm on September 27, 2023, Daniel Andrews resigned as premier of Victoria. Beyond the political, social, cultural and economic relevance that this had to the State of Victoria \u2013 there were other issues closer to hand. His replacement as premier would be a Jacinta. Jacinta Allan.<\/p>\n Every time her name was mentioned while she was the minister for transport and infrastructure, or her time as the minister for suburban rail loop, my tummy would flip. As the only Jacinta on the block, I had trained my ear to jump on any utterance of my name. And now, this? Premier of Victoria? Her name would be EVERYWHERE.<\/p>\n But I realised it wasn\u2019t just me. Other\u2019s had surely felt the same when they shared names with the powerful premiers of Victoria: Daniel, John, Jeff, Steve, Henry, Albert, James, Rupert, Harry, George, Alexander, Thomas, Duncan, Graham, John, James, John, John, John, Stanley, another Thomas, another John, and one more, William, Ted, James, William, Denis, another William, James, James, Bryan, William, William, Charles, Richard, Allan, William again, Lindsay, John, George, John, Charles, Ian, George and \u2026 well\u2026 Joan.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure how William or John might have felt, I mean, they would have probably become And now, for only the second time in the history of this state, a woman \u2013 someone who happens to share my first name \u2013 is sworn in as premier. One of only 14 women to be a head of government in the nation\u2019s history. I realised that the utterance of my name, in this context, was historic.<\/p>\n So, instead of fighting it, I\u2019ve decided to accept the role as the premier of Victoria and now spend a lot of time wandering Spring Street hoping to give a hapless journalist an exclusive on what I plan to do. Jacintas\/Das of the world, unite!<\/p>\n
quite accustomed to hearing their names associated with those that wielded power and
influence. But I\u2019m not sure about all the Joans. Would they have gone to bed on August 9,
1990, and woken up the next morning no longer just a Joan, but now a Joan that shared a
name with the first female premier of Victoria?<\/p>\n