My name is Ihab,
I speak English,
Bahki 3arabi,
Et je parle beaucoup français.
Born in France,
Fed Moroccan,
Raised in between.

My name is Ihab.
Not IhAb, nor ILaD and certainly not Habib.
I could show it to you,
I could draw the Arabic letters on the board,
The Alif, then the Ya,
Right next to the Ha,
The other Alif, and finally the Ba.
Would it matter? I don’t know.

My name is Ihab, but I used to be Iyèb.
It was the way I introduced myself in school,
Because yes, certainly, you must know:
Ihab is not French,
Ihab is unknown,
Ihab is foreign,
Ihab is not easy,
Ihab is not…suitable?

My name is Ihab,
Short for el Wahab, the giver.
A gift from God, that’s what it means,
But it felt more like a burden for a while.
ILèb? IhAb? Tayeb?
NO!

My name is Ihab,
But it gets annoying and tiring,
And people always struggle:
Ibab, Idal,
Idab, IhAb,
ILaD, Habib.
My name is Ihab,
But forget it,
Let’s find an alternative:
More French,
More known,
More local,

Easier?
My name is Ihab,
But I’ll tell them something else,
I’ll lie and…
My name is Mathieu.
Oh yes, it’s…

It’s French,
It’s Local,
It’s Well-known,
It’s Easier,
It’s Wrong.

But people understand,
And they sigh in relief when they ask for a
survey,
Or the cashier in the Starbucks next door.
Mathieu is the safe name,
The emergency exit,
The solution.

My name is not Mathieu,
But I got curious,
And I wondered:
What does it mean?
So dear audience, for you in exclusivity:
A short history lesson: what does Mathieu
stand for?

Mathieu is the French variant of Matthew,
Which comes from Matthaios,
The Greek form of the Hebrew name
Mattihyahu,
And guess what, dear audience?
The Hebrew Mattihyahu,
Which led to the Greek Matthaios,
That conducted to the English Matthew,
And the French Mathieu,
Is composed of mattan and yah,
Which respectively mean in Hebrew:
Gift and God.

My name is not Mathieu,
And the universe knows it,
Because it gently made fun of me when I tried
to change it,
Leading me to the biblical version of my real
name.
My name is Ihab,
I speak English,
Bahki 3arabi,
Et je parle beaucoup français.
It’s not an easy name,
But it is mine and I cherish it.
So, I wish you luck,
And I hope someday,
You’ll get to know it the way I do.