What I Like About...Names

As I redesigned and organized this blog, I realized that I lack the letter "N" in my alphabetically-likes series. I wondered what happened to the "N" blog and then I remembered that I pulled it down because it contained so many personal details. I was warned by some friends not to put out on the web so many personal details.

So today, I decided to fill in the missing "N". I still am going to write about names, but this time, the names will be generic and not personal. I will write more about the reasons for giving the specific name.

Anyway, I find names fascinating because there is always a story behind the use of a certain name. Why were you given a specific name? I discovered several reasons. If the reason for your name is not in the following list, then please add it here. I would like to hear from you.

what is in a name?

Here are some reasons why you are given a certain name:

• Your name is based on the saint's feast day on the calendar. This is especially true those who are Roman Catholics. So for example if your birthday is today, you might have the name "Callistus" because it is St. Callistus' feast day today (Oct 14).
• Your name is based on the favorite actor or actress/author/singer/idol of your parents. So for example, you might be named Harry (Potter) or Charice (Pempengco) or Angelina (Jolie) or Oprah or John Lloyd (Cruz) or Rafael (Nadal).
• Your parents hope that you will turn out to be the next scientist or world leader or philosopher so you are given the name "Einstein" or "Indira" or "Corazon" or "Descartes"
• Your name is combination of your parents' or grandparents' names. So it might be "Jonel", a combination of John and Elizabeth, or "Jumila", combination of Justo and Milagros
• You are born on a specific day of the week or month of year, so your name is "May" or "Tuesday" or "January"
• You are born on a significant date or day, so your name is "Millenium" or "Ondoy" (typhoon here in the Philippines) or "Katrina" (hurricane in the USA)  
• You are the junior of your parents. So you are John, Jr., or Marian, Jr. I know of certain families who name their children as John, Jr, John II, John III, John IV, etc. 
• All the names in your family start with the letters of your parents names. All the boys follow the father's name or the girls the mother's or it can be the other way around. So if your parents names are Peter and Mary, then maybe your names are: Paul, Pedro, and Pistachio; or Martha, Maritess, and Marilyn; or Patricia, Peggy and Paula; or Mario, Maximo, and Medardo
• Your parents stayed in some foreign country or studied some foreign language and they fell in love with some of the foreign sounding names like: Keira (Irish), Mahinhin (Pilipino), Akiko (Japanese), Celio (Portugese)
• Your parents consulted numerology or horoscope so your name must exhibit a certain vibration or must sum up to a specific number, etc. So your name is "John Paul Castro" which comes up to the number 11. Number 11 is characterized by high spirituality, intuition, etc.
• Your parents were hoping for a baby girl or boy so they prepared only for girls' or boys' names. Then you turn out to be of the opposite sex (this was before the advent of ultrasound) and your parents did not bother to find another name but just changed the sex of the name. So your name was originally "Teresita" but you turn out to be a boy, so now you are named "Teresito"

These are just some of the reasons I gathered why you are given a specific name. If you know of other reasons, please add them here in the comments. Thank you!

I wrote a longer article about names. Check out this link.
What-is-In-a-Name-How-Did-You-Get-Your-Name