Names

Good morning! Pardon my lack of posting lately; I’ve not really been in much a writing mood as of late and nothing out of the ordinary has been happening. Today, however, I feel a bit of a rant coming on.

As the boys and I were eating breakfast, I was looking up the meanings of their names online. It can be an entertaining endeavor and did not disappoint this morning. However, with the three boys, there are only six names to look up so I decided to look up Amena. My favorite name website, Behind the Name, has no record of Amena; some similar names, but not specifically ‘Amena’. Hmmmmmmm. I wonder why. So I did a google search. Well, there are lots of Amena’s. However, the first five sites I visited list Amena as an Arabic name meaning ‘honest woman.’ Ah, no. I do realize there is an Arabic name, Amina, and the meaning appears to be ‘honest woman’ but that’s not Amena’s name (interesting to note that it is the name of one of the doctors who worked on her in Sioux Falls). The sixth website I visited listed Amena as Celtic meaning ‘honest woman.’ Well, we’re close with the Celtic but not the meaning. What’s the deal? The next one says Celtic meaning ‘honest, utterly pure.’ Really? Where do they come up with this stuff? The next three all list it as an Arabic name.

The book I found Amena in said that it is Celtic meaning ‘heather on the hills.’ I really wish I wrote down at least the name of the book.

I just want to be clear that I don’t have a problem with there being a name similar to Amena’s that is Arabic and means ‘honest woman.’ There are a lot of cool Arabic names and the fact that there are so many that are similar to other cultural groups indicates to me that we are all interrelated and that the world really is a small place.

However, just last year, even, I could look Amena up and find at least half of the websites listing it as a Celtic name. I think the reason that this bothers me is that so many of us are turning our backs on our own cultural heritage.