(Originally published 5/14/07 on journalstar.com)

When I was 6 or 7 years old, I remember being in a gift shop and finding a rack of bookmarks with names and their meanings on them. The name “Brigitte” wasn’t available but later that night I asked my mom what my name meant. Brigitte means “strength,” or “the strong one”.

After hearing that I immediately grabbed the corner of our couch and surprised myself (and my mom) by being able to lift it about quarter-inch off the floor for half a second. Thrilled, I fantasized of being destined to live up to my name. Not to be manly-muscular, of course, but to be super-hero strong. I wanted to grow up to look like a Midge doll (Midge was Barbie’s brunette friend) and also be able to lift cars.

That didn’t happen, darnit, but I still love the idea that people can live up to their names, even if it’s in ways that only make sense at the end of their lives, or years later. It’s nice to think of myself as a strong person, surprisingly to myself sometimes still – but not in a lifting cars kind of way.

Of course it’s also pretty easy to interpret any name as being perfectly fitting and true, like a vague horoscope. So if your name means something like “the empty bucket” don’t lose sleep over it.

If you’ve never found out the meaning of your name, you can look it up here.