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Embrace each day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Sea of Bitterness



Yesterday in my Doctrine and Covenants class we were talking about the meaning of names and my professor, Bro. Petersen, asked if anyone knew the meaning of their name.  Many people raised their hand giving wonderful answers, "My name means Beloved one.", "My name means Beautiful Song Bird.",  "My name means Grace of God."  All these answers made me laugh as I thought back to when I found out the meaning of my own name...
Some of you my not know this but my given name is actually not Annie, it's Marianne.   A couple months ago I became obsessed with babynameworld.com, babyhold.com, babynames.com, etc.   I loved finding out not only what names meant but also names for my own children in the VERY distant future.  Doing this made me curious, "I wonder what my name means."  Wanting the meaning to be exactly right and very meaningful to me I used my given name, Marianne.  Waiting for the results I was anxious! I was thinking, Marianne is going to have such a beautiful meaning.  Annie probably wont be unique.  The result popped up on the screen MARIANNE: Origin: French; Meaning: Sea of Bitterness.  WHAT! Why didn't my name mean The Beloved one, Beautiful Song bird, or Grace of God?  I was a little upset, how could my parents name me THE SEA OF BITTERNESS?  Quickly, I looked up the Meaning of Annie. ANNIE: Origin: English; Meaning: Gracious and Merciful. Phew... That was better.  I then laughed, recognizing that I had been BITTER about being named Marianne, only proving the meaning of my name to be correct.  I remembered back to when I was young and I would write at the top of my papers, Marianne Annie Sevy, I did this out of bitterness, because I have no middle name either. AW MAN! Maybe my parents did name me correctly!
Back in my Doctrine and Covenants class I raised my hand thinking, "Ha ha, I'll show them." Bro. Petersen called on me, "What does your name mean?" I asnwered,  " The Sea of Bitterness." Everyone broke out in laughter and so did I. Bro. Petersen sat down on the piano bench in front of me looked at the ground in laughter and asked, "And how does that make you feel?" "Honestly, I'm a little bitter." Everyone laughed again and so did I!
Well, hopefully the meaning of our names doesn't determine the meaning of our lives. But, if they do, I'd better hope that I live up to the name Annie. Which is who I am!


1 comments:

Heidi said...

oh my dear! you are hilarious and awesome! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH :)

PS you made me curious and I looked up the meaning of my name... it means noble/nobility... i was hoping it meant hot/sexy... oh well...