Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What's in a Name?

Names really mean something. It's deeper metaphysics to find out what your own name "means" because you didn't get it by chance.

I used to wo rk with Mr. Metzger and Mr. Schaeffer, Mr. Butcher and Mr. Shepherd. Wowee!

I named my beautiful daughter Hadley, which means meadow.

I was thinking about Las Vegas and wondered what Las Vegas meant so I asked my multilingual sister ... her reply ...

"Vega in Spanish is like fertile lowland (vegas is pl). I guess that's what they originally named Las Vegas, for that reason.

"But in Mexican is means more a crop plantation, i.e., with cash crops. My boss and I had a case with that ... and hectare is their land-measure, not acre

"AND ... Vega is a star! And from Arabic, means "falling eagle". "

At one time Spain was overtaken by the Arabs. So much history is hidden in language.

Later my sister added:

vegetation : vega :: plantation : plant

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