I like to keep a fairly active blog if I'm going to bother having one, and I think I've done a pretty good job updating this thing (four times a week at least for quite a while now), but sometimes I need an easy day to break up the writing-related rambling, and I've been missing my blog surveys and prompts. For that reason, I'm going to start the Wednesday Factoid, bouncing off a post I found on Tumblr. You'll find out some random things about me, I'll get to keep posting stuff and diversify my content just a bit, and I won't feel burned out by mid-week wondering what kind of rambles I should put here.
So let's start!
WEDNESDAY FACTOID:
What is your name and does it mean anything?
My name is Julie. I'm pretty sure most people don't think of it as "meaning" anything in a straightforward sense, except that they may assume it is a shortened form of Julia or a feminized version of Julius. It does, however, have a "name meaning," like most names. It means "youthful."
I'm really interested in naming trends, so I've read a fair number of baby name books. My first name is listed as being a cutesy name with a vibe from the 1950s sometimes--a name that doesn't really have contemporary appeal, and the naming trend experts recommend that modern parents opt for Julia instead.
My middle name is Sondra. The less popular spelling was chosen so people wouldn't think it was pronounced "Sand-ra." Some naming utilities identify it as meaning "helpful." It's not a very popular name, and one of my favorite baby name books refers to it as being in "fashion limbo" and being "plain" and "no-frills."
My nickname is Ivy. Many of my friends call me that. It ended up getting attached to my life and online presence because of my best friend's interest in Piers Anthony's Xanth series, which contained twin princesses named Ida and Ivy. (We had a little running joke about "being" those princesses.) To add some confusion to the mix, I used the name for a character in one of my fantasy series projects too. Ivy usually isn't assigned meaning besides being associated with the vine. My favorite baby name books are pretty positive about the name Ivy. They say it's kind of a cool offbeat name that needs a revival, though of course the down side is the Poison Ivy jokes.
Now here's an interesting one you might not know. I also have a Hebrew name. My dad's side of the family is Jewish, and "Julie" can't actually even be written in Hebrew because it does not have a letter J. In our family, a naming tradition associated with honoring recently passed relatives influenced my parents' choice of names; my uncle Saul was the chosen relative for me, so I was supposed to have an S name. That influenced my parents' choice of my middle name, but my first name in Hebrew also has the S sound.
My Hebrew name is Shira Rachel. Shira means song or poem, which is very appropriate considering a) my grandparents are both singers and b) so am I. Rachel means lamb. In Hebrew it's pronounced differently--the emphasis is on the second syllable, like "rah-CHEL." (It's a softer ch sound, in the throat, kind of like a stronger H--not the CH from cheese.) I like it, and I used to use "Rachel" as my preferred name on my papers in Hebrew school.
My Hebrew name Shira Rachel is written like this:
I've certainly been called a few other things, but I won't repeat them here. ;)
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