I am named after an aunt I never met. In my version of a Jewish family, you don’t name babies after living people, only after those who have passed on. This is not true in all Jewish families. It depends on where you come from and your “tribe’s” traditions in the matter.
When I was born in 1947, there was a serious shortage of dead relatives after which to name me. Of course, there’s no law requiring you name your kid after a dead relative, but it certainly is the more popular path for naming. You don’t have to pick the whole name. You can just pick your favorite part of the name. Like, maybe the middle. Or the second middle. Or an Americanized version of the primary name — or what people who didn’t speak English thought the Americanized version might be. It accounts for the far-too-many boys named Isadore (for Itzchak or Isaac). Lacking a deep knowledge of English-language roots, baby’s name could be similar to the original Hebrew or Yiddish name by simply matching the first letter or syllable … a method resulting in some pretty bizarre names Jewish boys and girls spent a lifetime trying to lose. It’s too complicated to explain.
Even your Jewish friends can be reduced to tears of laughter. Most of us have Jewish names that we try to never mention. Anywhere. Ever. For any reason.
The only dead relative lurking about my family at the time of my birth was my grandmother’s cousin (or was it aunt?). Her name was Malka. Which means Queen in both Hebrew and Yiddish, so don’t start dissing me. The problem is that this is not a name that has an elegant North American “ring” to it.
My mother didn’t like it either and decided to name me “Mara” instead.
Mara is the Hebrew “root” word from which comes Mary, Marilyn, Maria and all the other “Mar” names. But Mara has music in it. I wouldn’t have minded it. I liked its tone in my ear.
It means “bitter.” If you don’t believe me, look it up.
The moment she told her the tribe I would be named Mara, the family leapt into the fray. “You can’t name her Mara. That means bitter! Who’d want a girl named bitter?” Mom was quite the individual, but there was only so much family pressure a woman could handle. They wore her down. Thus came Marilyn, which apparently was a great name for 1947. It remained a pretty hot name for a few more decades too.
On the other hand, Malka? Not a hit. Anywhere. Still stuck with it as my Jewish name. You don’t get to choose these things and anyone out there with one of those names they wish they didn’t have knows what I mean. I never liked my name. I still don’t like it. I don’t even know why I don’t like it. It isn’t mellow. Doesn’t have music. It’s just a name.
As a kid, I figured if I found a name I liked better, they might bestow it on me.
Me: “Mom, I’d like to be Linda. It means pretty.”
Mom: “No.”
Me: “Mom, could you call me Delores? It sound so romantic.”
Mom: “No.”
And so it went until I went to Israel where some fool told me I should use my Jewish name. I glared him down and stayed Marilyn. I could live with Marilyn, but Malka? Really? I knew two other North American ladies named Marilyn. All of us refused to change our names. Malka not only wasn’t a lovely name, it carried the whiff of “cleaning drudge.” I don’t know why. It just did.
So now, here I am. Seventy odd years later and I’m still Marilyn. Still fundamentally bitter. It doesn’t seem as bad as it did back in The Day. Whenever that was.
My birth name was Ralph. Named after my father. I hated the name all my life and changed it when I went away to college at 18 years old. Legally when I got married.
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i know at least two other people who went all the way and changed their names. I know MORE people who just sort of changed it, switched to a middle name or initials. Or, like me, just coped. But if my name were Ralph, I’d probably have had to change it too.
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I never gave much thought to first names when I was younger because I knew very few people that had “strange” names. Look up a list of the top baby names for those born in 1975, and about 95% of the kids I went to school with had those names. William is the perfect bland, overused first name to go with my bland, extremely overused last name. The good part of that is that you’re very hard to Google for those who might be so inclined. The bad news is how easy it is to get mixed up with one of your two million doppelgangers (There is another person with my same first and last name at work… I get asked to do his late training modules all the time)….
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I looked me up and discovered there are 256 more of Marilyn Armstrong. There are 89 Garry Armstrongs —
a lot more if you spell his name as Gary — but just 3 of Owen Kraus. I have a friends named Mike Smith. He finally changed his name. Like you, he was one of millions. Oddly, though, Garry has someone with his exact name who lives nearby. There aren’t that many of him, but one of them is right around the corner. Go figure.
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I suppose there are names that are forever popular and those that are popular during certain eras and then go out of style only to come back. Emma, Sophie, old fashioned names when I was young are now back in style. Mara as an English given name is popular these days- I like it- who cares what it means? My sister in laws Hebrew name is Yenta Golda- she knows no one is going to name anyone after her!
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I had an Aunt Yetta. No one named anyone after her, either. And no one is naming anyone after me or my mother.
Old-fashioned names have been returning for at least the past 20 years. My son was born during the heavy “J” years when all the boys and girls names started with “J.” But no one but me named their kid Owen until last year. Maybe our names will come back one day. Anything is possible 😀
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Through my entire school career, there was only one other Lois. Working…..I was the only Lois. And, of course, because it is so long, people shorten it to Lo. Or lengthen it to Louis or Louise. We cannot win with our names, can we?
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And yet in MY generation, Lois was a very popular name, much more so than Louise or Louisa. I guess some of us just don’t like what we were given.
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I don’t mind my birth name. It’s not common, and it’s not ugly… but it never fit me. I like Willow better.
I didn’t know that Mary came from Mara. Learn something new every day.
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Almost all the “mar” names — in English and most romance languages all derive from that root. And it is a REALLY popular name source. At least your name is not common.
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I grew up with the most abused name I can think of, and it still trails around behind me endlessly, like a lost puppy. I allow people to do Cary Grant at me (“Judy JudyJUdy”) just once. Only once. And everyone has to do it.
they think it’s funny.
I suspect, since my birth mother was a movie star fanatic, I was either named for Judy Garland or Judy Holliday, who were both big deals at that time. Almost everyone I know named Judy was born in that era. In a graduating class of 30 kids, four of us had the same name. When the teacher called “Judy” four hands went up.
I always wanted to be named Jessie or Jenny. No such luck.
My birth father’s first name was Lester, which isnt too bad considering it was turn of the century stuff. However, his younger brother was called Chester. sigh. They went through life (both of them turned out to be scientists) as L.C and C. M. and I dont blame them.
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If I had a middle name, I might have done initials. But no middle name EITHER. I couldn’t even switch. Garry was named after Gary Cooper and yes, they spelled his name wrong. My brother was named for another dead uncle somewhere, but at least his name worked out to a nickname. I got NO nickname, NO middle name. Life can be cruel.
I would have been perfectly happy with Judy.
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It’s a quirky fact that Cary Grant never said Judy, Judy, Judy! – Everyone else does (in his voice) but he never did!
love.
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“Martha” means “Sorrowing servant of God.” Whaddaya gonna’ do?
And Delores? You really want a name that means “sorrows” even if people could greet you with (wait. . .wait. . .)
“Hello, Dolly!” 😀
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As of age 12, I thought this was THE romantic name. It has been a long time since I worried about having a romantic name. if I had to rename myself, I have NO idea what it might be. Sounds like Martha is another descendant of the “mara” root. Most women’s names that start with “mar” come from the same root. Mom should have stuck with Mara.
I want “Hello, Dali !” Get them confused with my painting.
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I was supposed to have been Elizabeth but when I was born my dad was so happy that he decided to bury the hatchet with my mom’s sister Martha and he named me after her. My mom wasn’t happy about it. 😀
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But you really LIKE your name.
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No, not really. I loved my Aunt Martha. Martha was a strange name to grow up with in our generation and I can’t say why, exactly, other than all the way through school I had only one classmate that had it, too. I like the name Augusta Lamont, but I don’t see that happening in real life.
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Marilyn was also an odd one. I never met anyone with my name until High school — and then, just one girl — then no one else until I lived in Israel, where I met two others. Then one more, here in Uxbridge. And that is the total of the Marilyns in my life. Yet I looked it up and it’s considered a pretty popular name, so somewhere on earth, there are clumps of Marilyns.
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I think it was a name of the generation just before ours and after our parents’ — kids born in the 30s and 40s. Linda and Debbie were the most common names I remember from school, for girls 😉
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Susan and Carol for me. In my son’s group, Justin, Jennifer, and Emily. And now, it’s Owen and something or other for girls that sounds like a boy. My son’s name which NO ONE used when he was born is popular. The wheel turns. Also, biblical names are back, so probably so is yours.
But Marilyn is an odd one. Not trendy, ever.
You can check this out: https://nameberry.com/popular_names
You name IS pretty common these days. There are 426 people in the U.S. named Martha Kennedy.
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Marilyn may not be trendy but a certain Miss Monroe made it recognisable and memorable world wide! 😉
Had a bitter ending did that one, though!
love.
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Maybe MM shudda stuck with Norma Jean Baker.
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Like a candle in the wind….. 😉
love
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Ahhh… but bloglife is not the same as real life – it’s BETTER!
Hi Augusta! 😀
love.
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Love it. Gus is fine. 🙂
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You got it Gus! 🙂
love.
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😀
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Mom named me after her favorite actor, Gary Cooper. There was a snafu with my birth certificate and Gary became Garry. I like my name. During my career as a TV News reporter, I was sometimes asked if Garry Armstrong was my real name. I would pause for thought and, depending on the scenario, say no, I’m really Mike O’Sullivan, Benjamin Disraeli, Felix Von Durant, etc. You could see them actually considering my response. Idiots!!
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People. I would have been one of the gullible ones. Oh, wait, I am one of the gullible ones. 🙂
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My Bible and many on-line sources give Martha as an Aramaic name from the same root as Mar = Master and means Lady, Mistress (of a house)! 🙂
love.
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It’s Hebrew, not Aramaic. It still means bitter, including today and this is the Hebrew root for the “mar” names. There has been a lot of research done on language. Aramaic was used quite a lot in the new testament, but names were almost universally Hebrew. And should you choose to read the books in their original language, I think you will discover — it’s Hebrew.
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Not a choice i currently have available to me 🙂 So what is the connection between Hebrew and Aramaic languages and why does Mar mean master in Aramaic?
love.
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Aramaic was not a national language. It was broadly spoken by many people in the region enabling hem to talk to each other. It was common for people whose native languages were similar, but not the same, to speak Aramaic to bridge the gap, so it was in very common usage. But not being a language with roots, it also floated away eventually.
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Now i come to think about it – i believe i’ve read that Aramaic was only ever a spoken language. So how do modern day scholars figure out that mar in Aramaic meant master and Martha meant mistress when there should not be any written records to study or compare??? Strange…. Has the language remained spoken continuously throughout all of the last 2000 years or did the Greeks, Romans or Jews write an Aramaic dictionary, i wonder? 🙂
love.
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I don’t believe the language is spoken anywhere at this point.
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Man is this a rabbit warren!! I looked aramaic up – i got it wrong books of the old testament were written in it so it is considered a written language and scholars today can therefore study it. it’s also still spoken today in various forms in various regions of the middle East/N Africa (including a Judeo-Aramaic version around Palestine and Israel!) I already know more than i wanted to 🙂
love.
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Be careful who you ask, especially about the middle east. I live there a decade. I heard Arabic and Hebrew and a lot of variations of Arabic. I never heard a single person anywhere from any country speak Aramaic. Just saying.
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I like that.
The urban dictionary says it means “Genuine badass”
“(noun)a term used to describe a girl who’s a genuine badass; a successful independent woman who doesn’t take crap from no one and is well respected by everyone; everyone she meets loves her and just flat out envies how bad-ass she is; may be used in adj. form
The new girl applied to the new teaching program and was such a bad-ass that she got in; the interviewers were stunned by her sense of martha-ness.”
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Names are interesting and you can guess ages based upon them. If I’m somewhere and I hear “Judy,” I look around knowing full well I’m going to find another woman of my same age bracket. I always guessed that Judy was popular in those days because of Judy Garland.
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My best friend here in Uxbridge was named Marilyn. She was a Baker and I was the Armstrong, so we called each other “A” and “B.”
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Thanks, I’ll go look it up. I love statistics. I can stare at them for hours. Mental yoga.
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Well, I don’t know where my parents came up with the name Leslie Anne. I don’t mind it now because I get a lot of letters to the editors published because they think Leslie is a man. It has come in handy on occasion. I think Marilyn, is lovely. I have a cousin and a good friend named Marilyn.
Leslie
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Whenever I realize I don’t LIKE my name, I also recognize it could be a lot worse. There are some dreadful names out there. What were those parents thinking?
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I asked my grandmother that because she picked some really weird names for some of her children. She didn’t have an answer. I know my aunt changed her name from Sarah to Holly. Sarah isn’t too bad. But where did she come up with Elgin?
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That fits into my “What were they THINKING” state of mind. There are some truly hideous names out there, so even if I’m not fond of mine, it really could be a LOT worse. A LOT. Worse.
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I know…
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What’s in a name……
I like your name because I love you and one is associated with the other.
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Awww. I love you too!
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Hey you two, get a room!
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Thank you. We have six! Plus two baths!
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