Today in my 252 class we talked about the significance and ideology of names. People often name their kids with names of people or figures that they want them to aspire to be like and it got me to thinking about how good of a job Mom and Dad did naming us. First of all, they are beautiful names! Rachael Diana, Mary Elizabeth, Ruth Margaret, Elise Rebekah, Rosalind Clarissa. Just look at how beautiful those names are! I thought a while about every one of them and I just think they are the perfect names. Also, they are all really strong women in literature. So kudos, Mom and Dad.
However, I just looked up all the meanings of the names online somewhere. It was pretty cool and I just like to do that with names.
But.......
Elise is a short form of Elizabeth. I'm not sure Mom and Dad thought that one all the way through. :)
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3 months ago
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Elizabeth, Eliza, Elise, Elsbeth, and so on. Yes, it's a variant, but the Elise in the 12 Swans story is the woman we wanted to name you after. Integrity, courage, patience, and, above all, love gives her the strength to accomplish something miraculous. You, too, kiddo. And Rebekah was no slouch, either.
I think we all ended up with pretty good names too! And seriously, picking out kid names is really really fun. Although I must admit I've picked first names for my kids based more on just names I like rather than strong literary characters (I mean, Juliet? Might as well go for Ophelia. Although I did really like Portia but Neil wasn't crazy about it). I did take into account the actual meanings of the names for each child, since I wasn't always a huge fan of being "ewe." So Abigail is "my father's joy," Juliet is "youthful," and Isaac is "he laugheth."
But for middle names, we've tried to name them after people or traits that we really felt were good qualities or people to aspire to (Grace, Elizabeth, and David).
although I should say I think Ophelia is an extremely strong literary character, but she's not interpreted as such by most people.
I published a paper arguing that very point. :-)
I liked the Patient Griselda and Penelope, but chose to pass on using the names. I really like Rhiannon, though, and it can probably be used again by the second generation.
I've always loved the name Rhiannon--and even more after I read the story of Rhiannon and Pwyll. Dibs on that name! :)
Of course if I were going to go the classical literary route I'd also end up with kids named Orestes and Diomedes, which is perhaps not the best idea...
I love your name. It's beautiful and unique (without being weird) and it has real meaning. I remember reading the Twelve Swans story to you as a kid. You're growing up equally awesome. <3
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