Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Name that dame

Here's your daily Martha dose, Renee, and thanks for the comment on my last post as it nudged me into action. Carol wondered if I had a name and so I do. It's Martha.

No, I wasn't named after a maiden great aunt, but because my father thought it was a beautiful name. My sister and three brothers were all named after someone in the family. As a child, this bothered me; I was sure I was a changeling. I tried to transform myself into a Marty in Junior High School, but I was a Martha.

The name was dropping in popularity about the time I was born, but was a very popular name when my father was young. (The link won't display the results of the name. You have to type it in so the Java app can run.) I even asked him once if he had a girlfriend with that name. He denied it, but I suspect there was a positive association at some time with the name.

The origin of my name is Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke and it means lady. One of my favorite Bible verses is John 11:5: Jesus loved Martha. Why is it past tense though?

Additional thought: At least my pet name isn't Quack Quack.

4 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

Carol asked a good question, and it's a great name. If your dad was a movie fan he might have thought Martha Hyer was hot. I doubt he'd confide a reason like that to anyone!

Annie

Kasmira said...

My sister's name is Tabitha. In the bible, a Tabitha is mentioned and it also says that "Tabitha" in Hebrew is "Dorcas." You wouldn't believe how much crap we gave her about that!
So it could be worse, your name could be Dorcas!

Carol Michel said...

I think Martha is a good name, and you might be right about your father having some past, positive association with it, the details of which he won't reveal. All quite mysterious.

Thanks for clearing up the mystery of your name, Earth Girl, I mean Martha.

Anonymous said...

Its past tense because they are both dead at the time the writer wrote this.
This is common in books, ecspecially non-fiction.