The Meaning Behind a Name

Zoe Millbern             9/19/2014

My first name is Zoe. It's short, and slowly becoming more popular. Originally the name Zoe comes from the Greek word for "life" or "love of God", though honestly I'm fairly certain that my dad didn't really think about this when he named me. While most of history has seen names arise from a particular meaning that the parent wanted associated with the child in some way or traditional family names, I've noticed that recently a large number of people are moving away from this idea. My ancestry is for the most part comprised of Irish, Welsh, and a tiny bit of French, and my name being Greek further supports this more recent development of moving away from traditional means of deciding a name. One thing that I find ridiculous about some names today is that people seem to believe that there is a right and a wrong way to describe and define them. For instance, I know that my name is spelled correctly because the original Greek word was spelled this way. But more than that, it's spelled correctly simply because that is how I spell it, despite the fact that people have continuously told me that I spell it wrong, or that is just spells "Zoh", and I honestly think that is completely ridiculous that people fight with me about my own name. I've never really had a nickname, so I don't really find it significant to mention, but sometimes people just add another word to the end because it's so simple? It's a short name, so some people just say "Zo-___" to make it a little different. I love the names that I have found in fantasy literature, mostly the beautiful, meaningful names that Tolkien created in The Lord of the Rings, and think that it would be REALLY cool to have one. In all honesty though, I love my name, and wouldn't change it for anything because I think that it has grown to define and fit ME, and doesn't simply mean "Life", but represents who I am.

My middle name is Jean, which in Hebrew means "God is Gracious", and my mother's middle name was given to her in honor of my great aunt, whose first name is Jean. So, it has sort of started to become a family name. My middle name hasn't really been very influential during my life, but it serves as an example of how some traditional values are still holding true. I think that sometimes this passing of names is used to help the cohesion of a family by giving the something in common, but more importantly as a way to both remember and honor certain family members. 

My last name is Millbern, and all I know about it is that it is a Welsh name. A family's name might mean something social, indicating power, wealth, or position/career through the history of the family, and the last name has served to categorize people and show where they came from for a very long time. I think it is possible that sometime in the future people may begin to abandon this tradition method of name giving and instead more frequently start to choose a name that they feel represents them. On the other hand, it's the connection to a family and the desire to continue their legacy that could hold a lot of people back from it. In any case, that someone would want to keep their own name after marriage, or to keep it by hyphenation is their own choice. Whatever they like best or feels represents them best is their own decision and they should feel free to express themselves with it however they like. I don't really know yet if I will keep my name or not, I haven't decided yet how my last name connects with me completely.

Two Me's 

There has always been a sort of split between my life at home, by myself, and that which I have at school. They were always connected, however, and one affected the other. The life that I led at home was more open, but it involved a much different mind set. I would have to block things out but also be able to communicate on a more personal level, while at school I was able to focus completely on work and kept far quieter. There's a me that is part of a family and looks to improve myself, and a part of me that goes to school and out with my friends that is more reserved and looks to improve my abilities and image as it pertains to others. They've sort of been mixing together as they become more similar and I become more social, but there is still a divide that's hard to explain. Each has a different definition and way of thinking.