Sierra was asking what her name meant tonight, so I explained about the Sierra Nevada mountains and how she was named after them. I thought "Sierra" had more to do with the word "mountain", but I was incorrect. It refers to "saw" which is used to describe the mountain (saw-tooth mountains) range in California.
Jalen wanted to know about his name of course (Jalen means "calm" and Kai means "ocean"...where oh where did we go wrong with that??), then Jared (one who rules) and Trevor (prudent).
I got curious about Ren. I never thought about the meaning much, after all, I started life as Karen Bidwell and have been called Ren by some people since 1984. It started as a nickname and eventually felt like the only right name. I don't even like being called Karen anymore...it doesn't fit. Sometimes a name is chosen for you and sometimes you choose your name. I did the latter.
So I looked up Ren, which isn't easy. It's got roots in both Egyptian and Japanese culture, but not as a name. In the
Ancient Egyptian culture it actually meant "name" and was one of the parts of the soul to them.
The
Japanese definition was more interesting to me. It means "to link" and "gather together".
I've long felt that one of my greatest strengths in life was bringing people together. Whether for events, groups or social gatherings, I love to bring people together. So it was kinda cool that it had a similar definition in Japanese culture. The article I linked was all about it's use in writing....a bit technical, but interesting nonetheless.
In the words of Johnny Depp:
“They stick you with those names, those labels -- ‘rebel’ or whatever; whatever they like to use. Because they need a label; they need a name. They need something to put the price tag on the back of.”"
I'll take the label Ren...it seems to suit me alright. To hell with the other labels.:)
