this question, "Who gave you your name and why? Did you have a family nickname? How did you get it?" was first answered in my first blog, "plantobesurprisedbygod" in October of 2008...
i asked my parents about my name "sharon lei" and was told that my mom chose it. the reason? she loves flowers and "sharon" is the name of a plain in Israel where roses bloom. "lei" is hawaiian for garland, so more flowers. there was nothing earth-shattering about why i ended up being sharon lei and my dad was quick to point out that he didn't have any say in the name choice... :-)
as for my nickname, i have several but they're all variations of "peachy." i guess it must have been given to me because i was a little plump as a baby. some relatives call me "pepep" and my brother called me "pep" because when he was learning how to talk, he couldn't pronounce "peachy." that's the nickname that my close friends and family are privileged to call me...!!
when i had my own children, i spent a lot of time thinking about just the RIGHT name for each one. when i was pregnant with ashley, i was reading Ashley Montagu's "The Meaning of Love." Ashley Montagu was an anthropologist who wrote over 60 books during his lifetime. He also taught and lectured at Harvard, Rutgers University (for one year), the University of California, and New York University. i had no idea if my first child would be a boy or a girl. since dan's family had only boys, i thought for sure i would also have a son. if that were the case, he would have been named andrew. but, if the baby were a girl, i wanted to name her ashley after ashley montagu. in those days, ashley was not as common a name as it is now and "ashley," which for many years was a name for boys (remember Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind?!), was only starting to become one of those unisex names. Ashley is Old English and means "ash meadow." It also means "beautiful valley" and in simpler terms Ashley also means "beautiful." ashley's middle name is "rae" which is short for "rachel." i just thought they sounded great together!
i asked my parents about my name "sharon lei" and was told that my mom chose it. the reason? she loves flowers and "sharon" is the name of a plain in Israel where roses bloom. "lei" is hawaiian for garland, so more flowers. there was nothing earth-shattering about why i ended up being sharon lei and my dad was quick to point out that he didn't have any say in the name choice... :-)
as for my nickname, i have several but they're all variations of "peachy." i guess it must have been given to me because i was a little plump as a baby. some relatives call me "pepep" and my brother called me "pep" because when he was learning how to talk, he couldn't pronounce "peachy." that's the nickname that my close friends and family are privileged to call me...!!
when i had my own children, i spent a lot of time thinking about just the RIGHT name for each one. when i was pregnant with ashley, i was reading Ashley Montagu's "The Meaning of Love." Ashley Montagu was an anthropologist who wrote over 60 books during his lifetime. He also taught and lectured at Harvard, Rutgers University (for one year), the University of California, and New York University. i had no idea if my first child would be a boy or a girl. since dan's family had only boys, i thought for sure i would also have a son. if that were the case, he would have been named andrew. but, if the baby were a girl, i wanted to name her ashley after ashley montagu. in those days, ashley was not as common a name as it is now and "ashley," which for many years was a name for boys (remember Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind?!), was only starting to become one of those unisex names. Ashley is Old English and means "ash meadow." It also means "beautiful valley" and in simpler terms Ashley also means "beautiful." ashley's middle name is "rae" which is short for "rachel." i just thought they sounded great together!
I looked up "Ashley" on the 'net and someone wrote that the name originated from a myth. according to this myth, a beautiful young female was abducted by an ogre and imprisoned in an ash tree. over many years the tree took the form of that beautiful woman, but since nobody remembers the woman's name, she is only remembered as Ashley. It is said that the fabled treed is located in the town of Devonshire in the United Kingdom.
before i even got pregnant with justin, i remember riding home on a bus from baguio to manila and asking dan what he thought we should call our son, once we had one. his dad, who was one of the sweetest men ever!, was named justino and i wanted to name our son after him, but with an american twist to it. i didn't know if dan wanted his son to have "daniel" as his first name and was glad when he said it would be OK to call our son "justin daniel, jr." i'm happy that we have carried on dan's dad's name in our son who continues to live up to the meaning of his name.
justin is of Latin origin and means "just," "upright," "righteous." It's also a form of the New Testament name "Justus." justin was also a Greek theologian who founded a school of Christian philosophy in Rome. he was also the author of the Apology and the Dialogue.
even before our youngest child was born, i knew that i wanted to name her "erin" if we had a girl. erin was a surprise pregnancy, but one that was easy and peaceful. too peaceful, actually, because we had no way of knowing that she would be an emergency caesarian because the umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck. so, the delivery was the opposite of peaceful as Dr Salvador Francisco had to scramble to get me into OR to perform the C-section and dan had to hurry back from FEBC to sign the consent papers for the C-section. all the while, i was getting injected with the biggest needle i had ever seen right on my spine to get me ready for the procedure!! i still remember dr francisco opening me up and bec he didn't want the incision to be too long, he had one of his interns push down on my chest for several minutes to help push the baby out...! i still remember how weird that was to have some dude pushing down on my chest and my not even feeling any of it...!! but, praise God, that did the trick and erin was delivered safely with the umbilical cord cut right at my belly button. that was really a close call for both of us!!
erin means "peace." it is also the romantic name for ireland. i've always been fascinated by ireland which is one reason why erin has an irish name. maybe someday, we will travel there together... erin's full name is actually erinleigh. i thought about making it erinlei, but thought people might think it sounds too much like my own name... so, i just changed the lei to leigh... pretty nifty, huh?
so, what's in a name? plenty!! i just hope my kids are happy with their names or at least have made peace with their names, like i have with mine... :-)
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