What's In A Name?

Today, as I was reading the "Anne Frank's Diary - The diary of a young girl" I came across a lot of similarities between the character in the book and myself. Is there something behind possesing the same personalities by having similar names?

Selecting a name for a baby is a huge deal in the new millenium. Trends come and go, the fastest rising or falling baby names mirror cultural trends, changing fashions or world events. Today's baby names are influenced by celebrities, tv shows and even by popular brands. Both me and my sister were named after a notable queen and a princess. Whether we share the qualities and personalities of these famous people is yet another story. Names can have lifetime consequences and thats a fact. A name can set up a child for social acceptance, school yard teasing or ridicule. This effectively giving a child the ability to choose which name they're known by in future years as they grow older. My real first name is Marufa, but in school I was called Maruf in short, which later turned into 'MyRoof'. This resulted in a reluctance to use my first name unless for official purposes and instead, I reverted to using my nickname, which was much simpler and easier.

With celebrity being the new royalty, celebrity baby names are increasingly finding their way into 'normal' society. Using family names in this way is a wonderful way to keep ancestors alive down through the generations. I was named "Begum" which was retained for maidens and handed down over generations. But, the dictionary meaning of "Begum" meaning wife had given rise to a lot of ridicule too in growing years. So I suppose its important to realise and make sure that the names would be something the child will be happy with.

Recently, the internet has given rise to a huge dictionary of names to select from including the meanings of these names. Some not only allows you to search by name, but also by all sorts of fantastic categories including 'celebrity', 'pop culture', 'the classics' and 'imaginative'. Once you've narrowed your selection down to an individual name, the site, for example "parenting.com" gives you the meaning and origin of the name as well as the popularity rank over time.

Another thing you can add on to the list, if you believe in numerology is what kind of personality the baby could have once given such a name. One similar site I came across long ago was http://www.kabalarians.com/index.cfm where you can find out what kind of personality you have depending on your first name. According to the site it says that "The Kabalarian Philosophy teaches that mind and language are intimately linked. When language is used to attach a name to someone, certain specific forces of conscious intelligence are combined".

You can try out the site and check whether it works for you. I have found a few similarities in character as stated. But whether I truly believe that Anne Frank and Anne (me) have similar personalities due to the similar names is still a debatable issue.