In 2014 I featured a series of blog posts introducing you to 2,014 names. For the most part they were names that were brand new to me as well. Some names may be more familiar but I found the meaning or origin or some other aspect of the name made it worthy of inclusion here. You may love some of the names, you may hate some, but hopefully you enjoy learning about all of them.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Names for Easter Sunday

GIRLS

Othelia


Perlita -Spanish, meaning "little pearl".


Racheline


BOYS

Silvieus

Teterick

Ulick

Asabel - I can think of 2 or 3 possible origins of this name. I can only say for certain that it IS found as a man's name in the early history of Colonial and post-Colonial America, especially in New England. Some think it is just a corruption of Asahel, which is a Hebrew name meaning something like 'thank God for what he has made or done'. El is the part of the name referring to God so Asah would refer to God's acts. Asahel is in the Bible.

But there are a number of Biblical names with the element 'bel' in which that last syllable refers to the Semitic god Ba'al. Asa means 'healer' or 'physician' in Hebrew. So Asabel might be 'healer of Ba'al' (or 'healer of God").

Another possibility is that it is tied to the names Asa and Abel. Asa meaning "physician" or "healer" and Abel, a Hebrew name which might come from "hebel" which derives from "hevel" meaning "breath" or "vapor". Not sure if this would mean something like "breath healer" (and no, I'm not picturing someone equipped with Tictacs, but rather someone who helped with physical ailments, such as asthma and other health issues related to breath or else someone who healed the spirit, as breath and spirit were seen very much the same in ancient times or perhaps more just the meaning of a spirit healer, someone who healed with spiritual powers. It also seems it could mean something like someone who used breath in their healing, perhaps there were certain rituals or ways of healing that required the healer to, I don't know, breathe on the patient or follow certain breathing patterns themselves) or not.

No comments:

Post a Comment