What does your name mean?
72The Anatomy of a Name
Have you ever wondered where your name came from? Why was it considered a name? What is the origin of my name? When did it first appear in registrys, the Book of Heraldry? What does my name mean?
Well, to make a long story short, I was a member of a renaissance recreation group. In this group you couldn't use your given name and had to pick a different name that correlated with your chosen renaissance era and place: i.e. country and century. Once you picked your name you could register it in the Book of Heraldry along with your own family device (a crest that you make that has to be original and never used before)
In searching for my renaissance name, I wanted a name that I could use in my renaissnce store (I made historically accurate cloth dolls of the 16th century England) and I had been selling them under my store Daizies Attic. Daizie is my dog and also my favorite flower.
I always liked the name Sarah and if I had a girl that would be her name. I decided that my first name would be Sarah, but I wanted a different spelling. After hours of searching the Book of Heraldry (of which I didn't find any different spelling that I liked) I searched the internet and came upon the spelling: SARRA. I liked that! It was simple and different - it's a Hebrew name which means Princess. (I'm far from being a princess, but what the heck, why not) But it isn't English (don't tell anyone).
Ok, now I had to come up with a surname. Hmmmm, I wondered if there were any different words for 'attic'. I found the following: Garrett - an unfinished room under a roof. Bingo, an attic. I sold my dolls in my vendors booth called Sarras' Garrett (Sarras' Attic)
This is how Sarra Garrett was born. (yes I write under a pen name)
Now there are other meanings for the name Garrett. It came into useage during the 'Dark Ages' meaning Hard Spear and was actually the word Gerald - Gerard. The first recorded spelling of Gerard was in 1230 John Gerard - England, County of Essex - member of the merchantile class of a midevil town: comfortable or complacent member of the middle class.
If you put the name Garrett all together, it is not only an 'attic' but a citizen of a midevil town who was a merchant and means hard spear. Ok now we are getting somewhere. I sell midevil dolls, my actual origin is from England, I am also a rapier fighter. Hmmm this is getting rather interesting.
My maiden name (actual) is Pierson - a variant of the English name Pierce meaning rock. My cousin has done our family geneology and traced our family back to 16th century England.
Between being a merchant and a rock (and sometimes stuck between a rock and a hard place) not only my 'created' name of Garrett, but my given surname of Pierson fits me perfectly: I'm as tough as a rock, I have store, am a rapier fighter and have an English heritage.
It's funny how doing a little research on names tied everything together for me. I bet if you did a research of your name you come up with the same surprise. I believe everything in life has a purpose, there are no coincidences. I kind of proved it to myself just by researching my name as it fits me to a tee. (but I don't play golf)
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Thank you dahoglund. It's interesting how names were changed throughout the years/centuries. Especially when families immigrated to America as their names were changed when they arrived at Ellis Island. Thank you for your comment.
Hi Sarra:
What a marvelous hub!
You have learned how to learn. I can see that . It's in your curiousity. Lol. Neither school, nor elders, nor the nearby ignorant has crushed the spark in dreamy eyes that sing the Lark. That toil in pleasures, treasures, and measures; no pain, no gain for everyone.
Our family name goes back to the middle ages too. It means serf. The common meaning today would be akin to a southern sharecropper. One who farms the land for the Land Owner (an Aristocrat. someone of the Nobility)in exchange for housing and a subsistence wage of food (both tenuously provided since the liability for crop failure falls upon the serf.)
My uncle loves to tell the story of how he and my Dad were snowed in at the airport in Chicago.
They hit the bar together and as they talked, and the hours flew by like the swirling snow outside; they struck up a conversation about names.
Our family name is unusual; both in its' spelling and rarity in our hometown. There were just two occurrences in our local phone book. My Dad and his brother. This is in a city and county with one million people.
So my Dad suggested a bet.
For the next round of drinks; Dad said he'd buy...if there weren't ANY folks listed in the Chicago area phone book with our last name.
So..over to the phone booth they went and they began to thumb through the massive white pages of the Chicago directory until they zeroed in on the spelling of...
LOL. They found three PAGES with our name.
Drinks were on my uncle.
HubCrafter
(You were right, my friend, when you said that we had a lot in common.)
LOL What a great story HubCrafter! I love to learn and research. Names fascinate me and so many spellings of them have changed over the years and as some have been lost as well. By the way, I hail from Maine and just moved back to the east coast from Arizona where i lived for 7 years. I had to recreate myself a few times over my life thus along my journey have learned quite a bit. I, we, will never stop learning so why not take advantage of it. Thank you for reading my hub.
Thank you sarra,I enjoyed your hub on names and I will look into it. Thank you for sharing it. Blessings to you. creativeone59
I'm happy you read my hub creativeone59. Blessings to you too! - Sarra -
dahoglund Level 7 Commenter 2 years ago
I agree that names can be interesting. Our family name was changed when my grandparents came to America from Sweden. I don't know why, although there are several possibilities--one of which is that names were arbitrarily assigned to immigrants at the time. Interesting hub.