Licensing

Lilly Yanagita

Curiously, my name is now very popular.  Lily is now common, but most of my life, Lily was rare and old-fashion, and I didn’t like it.  Lilly (with two L’s) is apparently an American version according to a name book, but I’ve often thought about changing it to one L because everyone misspells my name!  During the Women’s Liberation and Asian American Movements of the 70’s, my name had too many feminine and western qualities, so I sometimes used my Japanese name, Yuriko, which had only been used in my home, never publicly.  Yuriko means “lily” in Japanese.