What is in a name?

so, upon the instigation of ojo (john) i am blogging about names, and the ownership of them.

what originally promted this thought was the birth of his little neice today, who was called Anna May (sic?).

he asked the question about how transient a name is. as in, you get given a name, and you have it your entire life, but is it your "real" name.

he asked if i felt a sense of ownership over my name.

i asked him if he felt like he was a "john", he said he wouldnt know any different.


for me personally, i dont necessarily have ownership of my name, but i feel a sense of ownership of what i am called.
be that sam, samantha, meika or enything else.

i used to be obsessed with names and what they meant. i had lists and lists memorised in my mind, and stuck up on my walls. i read articles on how names and their meanings could affect people as they grow up. and that some would grow into their name.
and thats an old custom too. to be bestowed a name to which describes you, and to which you grow into.
simon's name was changed to be peter, because Jesus was going to build his house on the rock (peter means rock).
jesus was to be the saviour to many (jesus is a varient of joshua, which means God saves).
it has happened again and again through out history. people get given names which mean something and they either grow into and adopt what their name means, or they dont.

Samantha means listener (its aramaic). which is kinda funny when you think about it for me. i like to talk. and, to be honest, i am not that good at really listening.
i used to be a lot worse than i am now. i am learning, slowly, how to really pay attention to what people say. not just to rush through what they are saying so that i can talk. its a slow process, but one that i have been on for a while, and have moved in leaps and bounds.

my other name i get called is Meika. this name has a story about its creation. my best friend during school was jessica. in about year 8 we joined our name's together, i became Samica and she became jessiantha.
my name kinda stuck, and april (my sister) began to call me Mica. and, me wanting to spell it phonetically, changed its spelling to Meika (pronounced Mee-ka)
the funny thing was, a while later i was searing around online for name meanings, and Googled "meika", and shock! it actually is a name, and it means something.
Meika is japanese, and means beautiful flower/woman.

so, what began as a topic created by ojo, has now transformed into what some names mean.

incase you were interested comment with your name, and i will tell you its meaning. there is still a part of me that find its utterly fascinating.

7:30 pm | Permalink