When I read last week that Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has announced he will incorporate his mother’s name into his, my heart sang with joy. Well done Lewis, I hope that many men may follow in your footsteps.
Why is it that women should lose their identities by losing their names when they marry, thereby removing their identity from any children they may choose to have?
This subject is close to my heart as I work to honour my own mother’s name through my latest film – Georgia.
Honouring Georgia
With more than 30 years’ experience in the international film industry I am no stranger to tackling tough stories. During my time covering war and tragedy both for NBC News as well as various charities, I have faced some cruel truths about humanity.
My latest project, however, tells the tale of one of the cruellest campaigns I have encountered, and it is also the tale of my mother.
Unbeknownst to most, including Greek natives, from 1949 to 1962 approximately 3,200 infants, toddlers and teenagers, were handed over by Greek orphanages to adoptive parents in the United States through corrupt and illegal procedures.
Thousands of women were forced to give up their children and my birth mother, Georgia Korakis, was one of them.
I have now turned the story of Georgia into a film, so my mother’s name will live on long after I am gone.
Georgia Korakis last held me in her arms when I was less than a year old. Having been forced to surrender me to an Athens orphanage when I was just weeks old, a kindly nurse had allowed my mother to visit me regularly, and as with any mother and child, we formed a bond. When the day came for Sophia and Nick Axotis to take me back to LA with them my mother appeared at the court, pleading to hold her child one last time.
My adoptive mother Sophia frequently told me of the love she saw in Georgia’s eyes, the desperation, and the pain, as I was taken from her forever.
Sophia could not have children of her own, and simply wanted to give a child with no prospects some sort of future. I could never hold her decision to adopt against her, but I hold the decision of the Greek authorities to displace thousands of children from their home against them very strongly indeed.
It is our responsibility to keep our mother’s names alive
Fast forward 50-something years and I am lucky enough to be a sought-after film producer with a life my birth mother could never even have dreamed of. But I refuse to let our separate fates be the end of the story.
I have hired genealogists, private detectives, historians, you name it, to help me find out more about Georgia, but to no avail. So I am honouring her name the only way I know how – through film.
Last year, when I was invited to sponsor a seat in the new BAFTA theatre on Piccadilly, it was not my name I chose, but the name Georgia Korakis. She may have had no education, no family, no support, but her name will live on in the most esteemed theatre in the world.
Image of the Princess Anne Theatre Seat Endowment plaques at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, Tuesday 8 February 2022, London, U.K.
And as the subject of my forthcoming film – Georgia – her story will be told so that people across the world hear her name, and know her story. My hope is that by highlighting what happened to Greek mothers during that cruel time, history will not repeat itself, and perhaps other victims can seek some sort of justice.
Lewis’ decision was brave and admirable
Lewis Hamilton said of his decision: “It’s embracing your own family. You only have one… I want my family’s name to transcend down to the next generation and I don’t want my mum’s name to be forgotten.”
By continuing this archaic tradition of just the father’s name being passed down to children we are denying them part of their heritage. I strongly believe we need to honour the women in our life, and empower the younger generations, and identity through names is a way to start.
My daughters are named after both my mothers – and Sophia and Georgia bear the name Axiotis which we returned to its Greek form, it having been anglicised by Nick Axotis before I was born, before he had even considered adopting a Greek child.
I would encourage men to consider both their names and the ones they give their children, and I applaud Hamilton for his public move in what is a private matter. I hope that by acknowledging the strength and influence of his mother so publicly, others may be moved to incorporate their entire heritage into their identity too, and to use it as a tool to express appreciation and respect for the women that raised us.
James P Axiotis
