The name I let go, and the steadier one I chose.
Jack almost had a different name.
He’s one of the five children in The Hallway of Doorknobs, and for a while, he was called something else. Then a season came when several disappointments landed close together, the way they sometimes do.
For a big part of my life, I would have met a stretch like that the way Vanish does. Vanish is one of the characters the children meet in the hallway, the part that disappears when things get hard or feelings are overwhelming. That part of me would have taken the disappointments inward, decided they meant something about me, and gone quiet.
This time I did something different. Instead of disappearing, I grounded myself in the basics, personally and professionally. I let go of the old name, one I had quietly outgrown, and I went looking for something steadier.
Jack is what I found. It’s the sturdy, friendly name that runs through all our oldest childhood stories: “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Jack and Jill,” “Jack Sprat,” and “Little Jack Horner.” A name a child already knows before they can read.
The meaning fit the moment, too. Jack grew out of John, which means “God is gracious.” And in medieval England, “jack” became the everyday word for an ordinary working person, the sense still alive in “jack-of-all-trades.” A plain, good name about getting back to basics. That was exactly where I needed to be.
Writing this book helped me continue to meet my own vanishing part with a little more compassion and understanding. That is what the whole hallway is for: helping children, and the grown-ups reading beside them, get to know all their parts.
Jack is the last of the five children’s names. Thank you for walking the hallway with me and learning the story of how Luna, Amira, Manuel, Sara, and Jack got their names.
If you’d like to bring The Hallway of Doorknobs into your home, classroom, or therapy office, you can find it at lynnahaller.com/books/the-hallway-of-doorknobs/.
This is part of a series about how the children in The Hallway of Doorknobs: A Journey to the Feelings Inside got their names.
- Behind the name: Jack - October 12, 2026
- Behind the name: Sara - October 7, 2026
- Behind the name: Manuel - October 5, 2026
I totally relate to what you’re saying about a traditional way of dealing with disappointment and overwhelm: to disappear and vanish. I admire your ability to shift into a new pattern that reflects your growth.