(c) 5/1998 - 1/2012
How Do I Decide on a Name?
(links verified 1/17/11)
I have seen so many girls
running around nameless (without a fem name that is) or
they seem to be changing names with the direction of
the wind. I can understand those being new to actual
contact and with that, being unprepared to define
themselves. The girls changing names with the wind-I
can understand some of that too. I hear reasons such as
"well I feel different today" or "it just wasn't me."
In these instances, I see the girls looking at matching
their names to who it is they believe they are
projecting--to their persona. From some of these naming
"adventures" to get the name right, to even figure out
who you are, is why I decided to write this "how to."
Besides, *smile* I thought this would be fun.
To begin, we have several ways we attack this naming issue. We have people select names for us, we decide to be named after someone we have endeared, we simply like the sound of various names. We also pick our names based on their definitions or what is their meanings (subtle but different from the definition). We put all kinds of conditions on the name, but one of the most common, I believe, is matching our fem initials to our given ones. Well that was my two cents: follow http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/nameindex.html for a more thorough discussion. Also, the whole site has bunches of other good stuff.
No matter how you approach naming yourself (and I cannot imagine this process is any different than naming your children), I found a site that has proven to be a good start - www.babynames.com. Go figure *smile* It does seem to be rather complete. Another choice for finding sites is to do what I did the first time. I got out my magic search engine and fed it "+names +meanings" (without the quotes, of course) to have it find some reasonable sites to use in finding your own name.
I found a somewhat unique site. This site provides an interesting analysis of a name. Do you remember "Sunday's child is full of grace" and the rest of the poem? Well this site provides similar information. On the site, I checked both my male and female names to see if they were the same since so many dictionaries just say "Davita is the feminine of ..." Sure enough, they were not the same people. This wonderful site is http://babynames.kabalarians.com/. Look for the free analysis in the list of items offered by the web site. if you have plans for a middle name, the site charges for a full analysis.
Okay, not that you care, but I hit the name dictionaries with some limits on who I was to be. I am one of those people that decided to have my initials unchanged. I also did not want to be named after anyone I knew. Finally, I wanted it to sound halfway decent when spoken. So here I be, "Davita" which has a name dictionary meaning the same as my other self. However, the person named "Davita" is not the same person as my other self. I was looking at the two and I feel I am actually a mix of the two. I showed the descriptions to a coworker without telling her of my dual genders. *Smile* she disagreed with "Davita's." Wellllll, I am not changing names nor am I changing personas.
While I have you, the various web sites I have looked into cannot seem to figure out where "Davita" originates. The best I can figure it comes from "Davita's Harp," a book about a German Jewish girl. If you have a definitive answer, will you let me know? *smile*
As for you girls (and boys)-- happy hunting.