What’s in a name?
What is in a name, I wonder? This collection of - hopefully - euphonic sounds that we respond to if someone calls in the middle of the street. And how many names do you have?
Likely a nickname, at least one, or multiple depending on the phase of life, local slang and cultural references. Maybe a second name that becomes useful when you want to have an external, if not tangible at least “showable” sign that you’ve decided to take a sharp turn in the evolution of your life.
As anyone that found themselves (gender-neutral pronoun here) living in China, Taiwan or just studying Mandarin would have found, you definitely need a Chinese name to survive, let’s not even speak about integrating into, the Chinese culture. Which appears funny as I distinctly remember from my first English classes in elementary school that “No Giulia, your name is Giulia and you don’t have to translate it to Julie. First names never get translated”. This by the way was a relief because I happen to be called a name that doesn’t not have many corresponding ones in other languages.
Photo by Maddalena Brugnaro (@mb_lifeframer) taken at Wild Sisters United festival, June 2023 (@wildsistersunited).
In my life I’ve only had one name, so far. Though I had (and might still have in the future) a brief fling with 安睿晞 (read An Rui Xi - I won’t go into tones but if you speak Mandarin, those would be 1 4 1). Most of my friends just call me Ori, though again a very well-meaning but slightly crazy Jordanian friend of mine called me Oreo, yes just like the cookies.
Before starting my Kundalini yoga teacher training, I kept reading these clearly-not-Western names attached to clearly-Western-born Kundalini yoga teachers (Gurmukh, Gurushabd, Deva Premal…). They are their “spiritual names”, names that speak to their energy and signal that they are “on the path”. Whatever that means. I romanticised them a lot, as I think I did the entire Kundalini teacher training (but more on that on a different article). I imagined meeting a teacher that would be able, thanks to all their years of deep practices, to peek into my soul and, most importantly maybe, into my future, my reason to be here on this Earth. And through that keen perception, they would bestow upon me a name that would fit me like a glove made of light and would melt into my own being. Every breath would reverberate to the sound of that name. As I said, romantic eh?
My lovely roommate from Turkey had such a story, with her Indian teacher meditating on her name and getting the same answer three times. I don’t know how other people got their spiritual name but in the Kundalini yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan) world, the identification and communication of the names is done through a website. You are required to give your Kundalini references of sort and your birth date (no time). Afterwards, if you want, you could give a money donation to support the work of the “spiritual names department” of the 3HO organization. I don’t know how many people work there but your name will be actually given by the Director of Spiritual Names (actual job title), a psychic/highly intuitive woman that is in charge of connecting with the divine and, through that connection, of channelling the name of each petitioner. I’m assuming that in other traditions it would be similarly your guru, a shaman or a medicine man or woman.
Unfortunately the entire online format and getting the name from someone that I don’t know, and haven’t in a way vetted, doesn’t really work for me.
I mean, take my experience with deciding on a (not very spiritual) Mandarin name. 98% of the people would just get a couple of options from their Chinese teacher, pick the best sounding or best meaning one and call it a day. Me? I did plenty of online research on how to go about it. I wrote a full list of 10 requirements which I proceeded to share with more than a dozen different people. Teachers, friends (some of which probably following this episode are not going to be friends with me anymore…), friends of friends. I called in favours. I prepared a Word document with the options. I sent voice notes to other (Mandarin speakers and non) friends to get their opinion on the sounds. Counted the character strokes. Probably I ended up settling for 安睿晞 mostly out of sheer exhaustion.
How could I ever be so wishy-washy for something as important as a spiritual name?
One of my Kundalini teachers, to the (spiritual) name of Amanbir said that he got his name but then never used it because didn’t quite like the sound of it, until someone else asked him if they could call him by their name, therefore giving light and water to the name-seedling. Until it sprouted into being known in the world by Amanbir only, his original name left for more mundane things like Revolut accounts. Amanbir’s eyes were sparkling when he recounted that you don’t necessarily start by being connected to the name, but that you go through a process of slowly embodying it. Which is probably why I’ve had friends with a first name and a middle name (or two) who decided to switch between them to mark a turning point in their life. Shedding an old skin and taking up a new identity to grow into and embody.
Us, people with only one name, have to make do with evolving our identity in the old-fashioned way. Or I could use my brand-new Sikh spiritual name: Ram Bani Kaur. It apparently means the Princess/Lioness (Kaur) who embodies a universal consciousness (Ram) through meditation on the inner divine sound of God (Bani). A mouthful. Not the name, I mean the meaning.
While I will meditate on the name, or especially on how this specific name was chosen for me, I don’t think I will be using it any time soon. On the contrary, as I’ve embarked on this journey of researching spiritual traditions across the world, I’d be interested in seeing if other traditions would give me a name whose meaning aligns with this one, just for curiosity.
Because I’ve never thought of myself as anyone other than Oriana. Sometimes I do wonder who Oriana is, what does she look like? How does she feel like? Am I living up to her name? I don’t have any answers, if not that I’d like for the vibration and energy of my name to match me, not for me to have to match it. I’d like not to be constricted by other people’s view of my name but to force society to perceive my name exactly for what I want it (me) to be. At any point in time in my evolution.
