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Thoughts About: Spiritual Names |
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Thoughts About: Spiritual Names |
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Heya Zehra!
VERY interesting... myself and my family would love to talk to you about this more if you'd be interested ... my (soul) sister and I just legally changed our names to names we remembered from days when we were devotees of Bast and Sekhmet -- we now go by Zohara ("Zo") and Aostara ("Star") -- she was born in Armenia and says that these names too are closely tied to the Persian area.... We believe that the 'Ra' suffix has a spiritual signifigance of it's own, possibly representing a specific type of devotee...
Curiouser and curiouser...
I've been watching these posts and noting how interesting it is where people's chosen names have come from. I changed mine legally about 12 years ago. All I knew was that I hated the names my parents had given me, which were odd, ugly and left some terrible psycholical wounds (I say wounds, not scars, because they healed after taking new names and I don't believe they left scars).
I tried on various names for size during teenagerhood. I especially liked the name Marina but then lost interest.
I didn't know what to call myself but new it had to be significant and received the names through a guide who said "Acantha Tara" would be most appropriate not only because they sound lovely but mostly because of their meanings. Acantha is of Greek origin and means "thorn" as in "thorn in the side" and Tara, in this case, is Japanese and means "iron willed." He (an Assyrian incidentally, and neither Greek nor Japanese) said it fit perfectly with my always pushing against status quo and enhanced the tenacity I was born with. I have never regretted this change.
Now, I wound up with one of the most popular female names in the country being written on my birth certificate, and that's given me great problems. I wonder, if I ever have children and give them unique names to help them from going through the problems I did, if they would react as you did. Have to try some kind of balance, and not swing from one end of the range to the other :).
Tara is also a Tibetan goddess of healing, compassion and other happy things, whom I have heard works with Sekhmet quite well (a friend of mine is adopted by her). Someone else might have mentioned this, I forget.
I have lots and lots of names (probably to make up for the one really dull one I was given), but the one I use online the most at this point is Llyne, which is are-Welshifying in spelling and pronunciation (thlin, roughly) of my original middle name, Lynn, with an "e" added at the end for feminization and because it looks good -- don't know if the "e" is a feminine ending in Welsh as in a lot of the Romantic languages -- probably not, just to be perverse, but it works for me, so who cares?
My other nom-de-web is Serenath, which is a dragon-name that I devised along the naming rules of Anne McCaffrey's Pernese dragons when I was given the opportunity to become a creator goddess on a MUD that had dragons as one of the races. It's a combo of the names Selene and Serena that I've always liked, with the dragonish"th" at the end. It tends to remind people vaguely of celestial things, which was my intent. When the MUD didn't work out, the persona took command of building my new web site.
Hello...
I've been lurking for the past few days to get a feel for the list, and waiting for an opportunity to introduce myself. The name topic is quite interesting. I also have several names, including that which my mother gave me. I've kept it pretty much because of her. So most people know me as Erin, and I sign my artwork either with my initials, E.L.M, or with my stronger name form Eris. In a religious context, i use a different, more personal name.
Anyway... I think that since the name is so often the thing itself, or at least its identity... it's only fitting to cut the name to suit the need.
Love Always...
