What’s in a Name?

My name is Edwina.  I am the first child of my parents, and I think they were hoping for a boy!  I was named after my father – Edwin, which was a popular name during the early part of the 20^th century. (Oops, got to be careful here, otherwise I might give away my age!)  Edwin comes from the Old English, meaning ‘rich’ or ‘happy’ and wine ‘friend’.  That’s not a bad association to have in a name!  Edwina, of course is the feminine form of Edwin.  In my lifetime it has not been a common name.  I have known a few, and of course, there are a few famous ones.  (Who doesn’t remember Edwina Currie!?)

I always liked the idea of having a name that was different.  It made me feel special.  When I opened my Folksy shop and came to the point of listing my bags, I had never previous given them names, but only brief descriptions to differentiate between them.  Suddenly, I was inspired to give them all names, not just any old name, but names that were associated with beautiful, significant or powerful women.  Take Aurora for example:

In Roman mythology, Aurora is the goddess of the dawn; she renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun.  I just really liked the idea of naming my bags after Goddesses.  To me, all my bags are special and giving them special names seemed somehow fitting.  Don’t you think Aurora suits this extraordinary bag?

Fauna is a goddess in ancient Roman religion, said in differing ancient sources to be the wife, sister, or daughter of Faunus.  Fauna's name derived from faveo, favere, "to favor, nurture," "because she nurtures all that is useful to living creatures”.  A beautiful bag deserves a lovely name.

I figured that the women who bought my bags would get a kick out of owning a bag that had such a strong association with mythology, beauty and interesting women.  Perhaps it would rub off!

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Lucina was the goddess of childbirth. She safeguarded the lives of women in labour.  Lucina was chief among a number of deities who influenced or guided every aspect of birth and child development.  Wow! How cool is that?  And this is the bag I named after her:

To be fair, not all my bags are named after Roman or Greek Goddesses.  I also chose names because I liked them.  Zara, may be a name from Arabic, meaning ‘eastern splendour’, or it may simply be a variant of Sarah.  Sarah comes from the Hebrew, meaning ‘Princess’, so some lovely associations here!  It was rarely given as a first name until the 1970s and of course, the most famous bearer is Princess Anne’s daughter who was born in 1981.  This is the bag I named Zara:

A beautiful princess of a bag!  Visit my Folksy shop and see lots more special bags with beautiful names!

http://folksy.com/shops/HandmadebyEdwina

BFN Edwina