Bonjour, Renae!

tauros-xiv:

Ashley

Literally, my Dad just liked the name and my Mom hated it.  They negotiated and made it my middle name, so Mom wouldn’t have to call me that ever.  Honestly, I would have preferred Ashley to my current name because of it’s high frequency in the area which I live (hence my nickname May) and the name that she wanted for me: Katherine or Kaitlyn or something like that with  K.  Sounds far too soap-opera-y for my tastes, and definitely too common.  No, not even the video game makes it better.

I did a little snooping, and Ashley used to be a surname, then a boys first name, then girls picked it up because of (you guessed it) a soap opera in 1982.  Unisex now, bet no one knew that.  It either means “Ash Tree Meadow” in Old English, or is derived from Aisling, which is Irish Gaelic for vision.  Altogether, first middle and last, my name is really damn Gaelic. (Not complaining about that, I’m proud of my Gaelic blood)

But still, I hate soap operas.  A lot.  Like, it’s not even funny how much I hate soaps.

Renae Dynielle.

First of all my parents did not expect me to be a girl, so my name was a last minute sort of deal. My mom really wanted my current middle name to be my first name with the proper spelling for it (“Danielle,” which means “God is My Judge”) However my dad was totally against the idea. The name my mother wanted happened to be the name of my dad’s ex-wife, so they compromised. My first name was the name my grandmother considered for naming my youngest aunt (apparently the spelling of “Renae” is more phonetic than its French spelling) and mom changed the spelling of my middle name so that my dad would be happy.

Anyway I like my ridiculously French name, especially my first name! It means “rebirth, revolution” and has been the main reason behind my obsession with butterflies, phoenixes, and Revolutionary Girl Utena.