Power Of A Name

Yesterday I read an awesome blog from one of my blogging buddies, Crazy Train To Tinky Town, about what’s in a name. In fact, she was talking about how she came to be named. Oddly enough, I’d been thinking a lot about that exact topic as I’d recently come across one of my old journal books that housed my poems. In there was a poem I wrote for a creative writing project.

What do names and my project have to do with each other? Well, the project was to ask your parents how your name was selected, then write about it. As it turns out, I come by my poetic streak naturally. In fact, I remember that when I was younger, my mom would write long, long poems…usually church and God related. This meant that the words she used to describe how my name was selected were very strong and artistic. The teacher never specified HOW we had to write about our name selection, so I chose one of my favorite mediums. It was a creative writing class, afterall.

The parents-and me, incubating in Mom’s belly

Baby Girl

The angels in heaven
must have joined me
in my
celebration
on the day you
were born.
A beautiful,
perfect
baby girl
entering
an imperfect world.
I prayed
that God
would grant you
strength enough to
stand tall
in the midst of
the despair
you would
one day
face.
So I named
you
courageous.

Spaghetti Face Me

I wrote this back on May 6, 1992. It’s the meaning behind my name. I hope you found her awesome explanation of how she arrived at my name interesting. Funny, it wasn’t until that class that I bothered to ask about why my name was chosen. I was 18 at the time.

You know, she’s always treated me like I was brave and strong. I don’t know if it’s because of the name or how she treats me, but most of the time I’ve felt that way…a bit like a lioness. I think she’s proud of the person I’ve grown up to be. I just hope she thinks I’ve done justice to the name she chose for me.

Back in Germany

What about you? How did you come by your name? Do you think it has any bearing on the person you are today?