It’s interesting to think about the meaning behind names. You’re given a name at birth and here in the US, you’re called that essentially for the rest of your life. I personally always wondered why my parents chose the name “Jason”. My mother said that she liked the sound of it, and my father said that he just agreed with her.
After a small amount of research, I learned that “Jason” is of Greek origin and it means “healer”. My parents did not know this before they named me. Interested in this, I decided to look into etymology of names. I then found out that my Vietnamese middle name, Thien, means “benevolent”.
I would have never guessed that my Italian father’s name, Raymond, is derived from a Germanic word meaning “protector of the word”. He always thought that his name had something to do with the concept of the world, hence the “mond” section of his name. My mom’s name Eileen is actually an Irish version of Helen, which is of Greek origin.
Learning this just made me more interested in names, so I looked into my last name, Giovagnoli. After searching, I did not find anything oddly enough. I had asked my Italian friend and his family if they knew, and their answer was astounding. Giovagnoli roughly means “son of big John”.
My family was also astounded when they heard this, since they had never looked into the meaning either. This encouraged us to look into the family tree to look for someone named John, or some variation.
What about you? What does your name mean? Is there a reason you were named that?
