Judith Ortiz Cofer: Hello. My name is Judith Ortiz Cofer. Ortiz is my surname from my parents, and Cofer is the name I added on when I married my wonderful husband, John. People seem to have trouble with both of them. When I was growing up, Ortiz was not everywhere like it is now with baseball stars named Ortiz. So I think people have gotten it, but when I was one of the few Puerto Rican girls in St. Joseph's School in Patterson, New Jersey, I often I had to tell people "No, it's not Ortez." Then occasionally, they would turn it into Cortés because that's the name of the conquistador that everybody studies in high school. So I had to continuously remind them that it's Ortiz, not Cortés.

Judith is an odd name for a Puerto Rican girl, but my father liked it. He was in the military and he came back from his travels with that name, and it is interesting because Spanish speakers, at least on the island, have trouble with a T-H. We don't have the T-H sound. So I grew up hearing my name in Puerto Rico as Judit with T at the end. Then it became Judith when I came to the United States. That's basically the story of my given name.

Cofer, some people try to turn it into Coffer which is with two Fs and it means a little box. From what I understand from the Cofer family history, it started out as being Coffer and apparently my husband's family made coffers in old England and Ireland. So I don't know how true that story is, but I often have to just say "No, it's Cofer. One F." So that's basically the story of my three names, Judith Ortiz Cofer.