Our Names, What do they mean? Options

[Dhyana]

In a recent post welcoming our new member ni dios ni amo, I asked what his/her name meant. Chanahari then commented:

We could start a topic on this question. Some names make me curious as to what does they mean.

Many of our members have picked creative names, some in esoteric languages not known to common mortals This is a thread where we can explain the meaning of our member names, and also tell why we have picked this particular name.

To start with myself:

dhyAna means "meditation". It is the first part of my initiated name in ISKCON, Dhyana-kunda dasi. I liked my name. It refers to a pond in Vrindavan, where, as my spiritual master explained, Krishna used to go to meditate on Radha when He was missing Her. The pond no longer exists but is mentioned in some old topographical documents about Vraja area.

[babu]

My name is Hindu for Mr.

I have this name because I am a man.

[0Srijiva0]

Srijiva...as in Sri Jiva Goswami. This has been my email and login name since I first became interested in Krsna. I haven't an initiated name yet. I just love the sound of Sri Jiva....Shree-Jeeva. It is nice too because It is generally always available.

I know that Jiva means living spirit, living being or energy or an embodied soul... and the Sri, well, I am pretty big headed at times..

I am very fond of Sri Jiva Goswami's writings, which I have begun to read only recently.

For my birth name, Neal, Nee-ul, it is defined as:
"From the Gaelic name Niall, which is of disputed origin, possibly meaning "champion" or "cloud". This was the name of a semi-legendary 4th-century Irish king. and my middle name, Cassady:
From the Irish surname Ó Caiside meaning "descendent of Caiside". Caiside is a first name meaning "curly haired" from Gaelic cas
and my last name means: From the marshy or bog land ...so get this, my whole name means the curly haired champion from the marsh ...

When I get initiated, I am willing to bet I will get a name beginning with Nila, like Nila-Madhava, or Nila Gauranga. Some devotees call me that anyways & so I will introduce myself as Nila at the temple...

I think it means Blackish like the colour of Krsna. I would love to be called Nilamadhava, because I am sooo in love with Lord Jagannatha, who's original form was Nila-Madhava before appearing as the transcendental log in the Ocean from which the deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra were fashioned.

This post has been edited by Srijiva: Mar 8 2005, 01:22 AM

[Preyobrazhenya]

Preyobrazhenya - This is a Church Slavonic word and I picked it for a username in honor of the Russian monastery that I am part of. It means "Transfiguration" - but as Kalkidas pointed out - it is in the genitive -as in Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration.

[Chanahari]

I wanted to commemorate the effects of the movement's gastronomy on my life. I like curd.

chAnA - means curd in Bengali. (ref. CC. ML. 3. 48.)
AhArI - eater.

[metamorphosis]

re·per·cus·sion
An often indirect effect, influence, or result that is produced by an event or action.
A recoil, rebounding, or reciprocal motion after impact.
A reflection, especially of sound.


met·a·mor·pho·sis
A transformation, as by magic or sorcery.
A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.

[Homer]

This screen persona name choosing business requires careful thought and deep reflection. Our choice of on-line names shows the world how we perceive ourselves and how we wish to present ourselves to the world.

The deep philosophical and metaphysical reasons why I came to a decision to use, "Homer," are best illustrated by my siksa guru's own words:

"Dhaoooo......I don't know!"

[Brainiac]

Azra`iL - The name of the Angel of Death in Islam, although I was told it has Jewish influence too. I chose it because I felt like getting in touch with my dark side. While there is no 'dark side' to Azra`il per se since he is an angel after all, I felt that there was sufficient gloominess, torture and mysteriousness in his nature.

[sarasvati_river]

I have three names for an interesting reason. My parents wanted me to have a Vaishnava name and a Western name, but then their guru gave me a separate Vaishnava name because he wanted to name me.

Kristen is my legal Western name, the Danish feminine version of "Christian" -- my parents did not want an association with Christ, but interpreted Kristen as a general name for "a devotee of God." They chose the Danish spelling because they mistook it for the Swedish spelling (which is actually Christine) as an attempt to curry favor with my mother's family, who came from Sweden. Many people mistakenly call me Christine, however . . . maybe because I look Swedish?

Sarasvati is my legal middle name. My parents chose this name to honor Sarasvati Devi, the goddess of learning. Because I was the firstborn child in my family, my parents had great hopes for me to study hard and graduate from college, so they asked the patron of students for Her blessing. I guess they were successful, because now it seems I cannot get enough knowledge -- and I am the first person in my family to graduate from college, with honors no less.

However, I did not hear much about Sarasvati Devi in ISKCON. Recently, I have been interested to find out more about Her, and was very fascinated to learn that She was once a river Who supported a great civilization. She was lost for a long time, but archeologists have rediscovered Her at last! Hence my username, sarasvati_river.

My parents' guru liked to choose spiritual names for people using the first initial of their legal name. Because I was Kristen Sarasvati, or KS, he chose to call me Krishna Sankirtana, so that I would be inspired to spread Krishna's name everywhere. However, since leaving ISKCON I no longer use this name.

[0Oneiros0]

Kristen is my legal Western name, the Danish feminine version of "Christian" -- my parents did not want an association with Christ, but interpreted Kristen as a general name for "a devotee of God." They chose the Danish spelling because they mistook it for the Swedish spelling (which is actually Christine) as an attempt to curry favor with my mother's family, who came from Sweden.

In Danish, the two spellings Kristine and Christine are equally valid (it is not that one is Swedish and the other Danish). On January 1, 2005, there were in Denmark 5078 women registered with the name Christine and 4849 with the name Kristine, so the distribution of the two variant spellings is about 50-50. The spelling Kristen, which is your name, is very rare in Denmark; only 9 women were registered as having that name on January 1, 2005. Kristine and Christine are equally valid spellings of the feminine form of Christian in Denmark. Christian, by the way, can also legitimately be spelled Kristian (and I even knew a person called Kristjan).

The full name of the famous linguist Rasmus Rask was Rasmus Christian Rask, but he changed it to Rasmus Kristian Rask because he objected to having one sound (k) represented by two letters (c and h).

[Dhyana]

Thank you for sharing the story of your names, Sarasvati_river! It's fascinating, how our names come to reflect various aspects of ourselves, personas and relationships. And especially how we can redefine ourselves -- make a statement -- by creatively altering our names or by which one of several we pick.

What you did to your Sarasvati name is beautifully gentle -- discarding nothing of value but adding something new.

I have a dear friend, a devotee senior to me and my mentor for many years. I was a new bhaktin when he got initiated, by a letter. He told us about it. But later that day I lapsed into addressing him by his legal name, Artur. He became serious: "Artur has died!"

He had in mind initiation as rebirth. But I still felt uneasy about this radical rejection of his former identity.

(will desist from further digressing ramblings here... )

[Tapati]

Huh. I don't consider Terilyn McPherson to be dead--she's just my earlier incarnation.

[Dhyana]

The full name of the famous linguist Rasmus Rask was Ramus Christian Rask, but he changed it to Rasmus Kristian Rask because he objected to having one sound (k) represented by two letters (c and h).

Since you have now set your foot in this thread about names, Oneiros -- what does your name mean and what is its story? You may also reveal the meaning of your sig while you're at it... unless it's something confidential!

For some of us your sig is... well. rena grekiskan!

[evakurvan]

The full name of the famous linguist Rasmus Rask was Ramus Christian Rask, but he changed it to Rasmus Kristian Rask because he objected to having one sound (k) represented by two letters (c and h).

This is where I think CH for K comes from.

It seems when words are taken from the Greek, if they contain the Greek letter 'X,' that letter ends up being made into an H or a K or for best accuracy, a CH. This is because there is no letter in the English alphabet to represent the actual sound that the greek letter 'X' represents. I am writing 'X' because I do not know how to convert my keyboard to Greek script, but if I were to know how, it would look a lot like 'X.'

The word Christ in Greek is spelled Xpistos. To translate the sound of the 'X' some people will put a CH, because out of all the letters in the English alphabet that can approximiate the Greek sound 'X,' CH comes the closest.

Like in the word Chrysanthemum which stems from the Greek, that word begins with a 'X' in Greek, so when it turns into an English word, one uses CH. However oftentimes people will just put an H or a K, not for that word, but for other words that fall into that same category.

I can see why someone would object to having one sound (k) represented by two letters (c and h), but if you look at it from the perspective of how the word is pronounced in the language that it stemmed from, it is more accurate to use CH. That said, in the case of my own name, though it should be written in English with a CH, I just write it with only an H anyway!

* For the pronunciation of X, it is like the Hebrew phlegmatic H. Though it is translated as CH, that isn't related to CH as in Ch-ocoholic.

This post has been edited by evakurvan: Mar 14 2005, 12:28 AM

[0ramakesava0]

The name my guru gave me was "rAma kezava dAsa".

His explanation of it was short and sweet, but very sweet. You see, that morning I had been down in the temple yurt (we were still living off the land, the temple building had not yet been built), watching Citta Hari do the seva-puja for Krsna-Balarama, two salagrama silas we had.

I had been involved in Krsna Consciousness for some years, but watching Citta Hari do it - with me just inches away - was mind-blowing. My eyes justabout popped out of my sockets. Krsna was so beautiful, and Balarama, well such a dauji, the big elder brother, all proud and protective.

Anyway, he named said: "I gather you had a special darsana of Krsna-Balarama this morning, so your name will be Rama Kesava das, servant of Balarama and Sri Krsna". Very sweet. I've always had a thing for that pair.

PS I suppose this serves as my introduction, too. Blame Dhyana, she invited me.

[Preyobrazhenya]

This is piggybacking on evakurvan's post.

Here is what Christ looks like in Greek (I have Greek fonts installed):

Χριστος = Xristos = Christ

I don't know if this will show up right in your browsers.

[0Oneiros0]

Since you have now set your foot in this thread about names, Oneiros -- what does your name mean and what is its story?

And here I thought that I could sneak around and make do with posting pedantic remarks.

My name, Oneiros, is an ancient Greek word for "dream." From it, we get the English words like "oneirology" (the study of dreams), "oneiromancy" (divination through dreams), "oneirocriticism" (the art of interpreting dreams), etc.

It is not the only ancient Greek word meaning "dream." Aristotle uses the word enupnion in his three treatises on dreams: De Somno et Vigilia (On Sleep and Waking), De Insomniis (On Dreams), and De Divinatione per Somnum (On Divination through Sleep).

The word oneiros is found in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

I chose it as a name because I am interested in the role of reverie and dreams in the creative process. And, the word makes me think of cherished passages in Homer.

You may also reveal the meaning of your sig while you're at it... unless it's something confidential!

It is from Aristotle's treatise De Divinatione per Somnum (463b14-15). hê gàr phusís daimonía, all' ou theía, "For nature is daemonic, not divine." Freud found the distinction significant, but wondered whether we could translate it correctly. To me, the statement signifies that while the visions of a dream may give us the impression that they are trying to communicate something to us and may have the appearance of some grand design, it really is not the case. If something appears to try to convey something or seem relevant to our lives, it is a coincidence, plain and simple. Thus there is no possibility of any real divination through dreams. (This I agree with, but I am also of the opinion that dreams can still have a tremendous value for the creative process.)

[0Oneiros0]

I can see why someone would object to having one sound (k) represented by two letters (c and h), but if you look at it from the perspective of how the word is  pronounced in the language that it stemmed from, it is more accurate to use CH.

I only brought up the example of Rask in order to illustrate that sarasvati_river's idea that the K-Ch divide is between Danish and Swedish is incorrect (the use of ch in Danish goes back a long time). However, since you bring this up: Rask was a master linguist, a principal founder of comparative linguistics, and he knew Greek and Latin very well. He certainly knew very well why the ch is used in Danish, in the name Christine, for example. However, he was interested in creating consistency in Danish grammar and spelling. While of Greek origin, names such as Christine are part of the Danish vocabulary, and thus also subject to his ideas of establishing consistency.

[0Oneiros0]

Huh. I don't consider Terilyn McPherson to be dead--she's just my earlier incarnation.

After I was initiated the first time, there was a brahmacArin in the Danish temple who would always forget to address me by my new devotee name. However, when he realized his mistake, he would say, "I am sorry. You are devotee-name. Birth-name is dead." I always found it weird when he said that, especially as I felt no different at that point than I did before I was initiated.

[Dhyana]

PS I suppose this serves as my introduction, too. Blame Dhyana, she invited me.

Well met, ramakeshava, and thanks for your introduction. Ooooh, how this burden of blame is weighing me down!