Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Niel and I were discussing my name the other day. How there are a few other people who also share it. Like Ani DiFranco(though she isn’t Armenian.) Ani is also a Hawaiian name. It also means I in Hebrew. All my life I thought Ani was exclusively an Armenian name. It hasn’t been an easy name to have. You would think a name with three letters would be easy to pronounce, but for some folks it isn’t. Some pronounce it Annie. Though I’ll begrudgingly answer to that. It's pronounced Ahh Knee. As if you are sighing "ahhhh" and then saying "knee". Ani

I was named after my paternal grandmother. Although my parents broke from tradition and removed the K from the end. Ani actually was one of medieval Armenia’s capitals. Before Turkey took the land. They haven’t done anything with it though. Not surprising. The ruins of a once thriving city are what remain. It was also dubbed "City of 1001 Churches". Between 100 to 200,00 people lived in Ani and it rivaled Cairo, Constantinople, and Baghdad. If you want to learn more, Wikepedia has an extensive explanation of the name. I will impressed if you decide to read the entire thing about my name and Armenia. No I won’t give you a quiz just my appreciation.

Also Happy Fat Tuesday!

Fitting for both holidays
FakeJambalaya
Pork dumplings & Scallion Pancakes
Niel Photos.

4 comments:

Jesser said...

I like your name. It's a nice one and not too common like you said. I was one of like 3 Jessicas in every grade-school class and it's not that I didn't like sharing my name, but I didn't really tend to like the people I share it with.

Yvett said...

Quite interesting. Bring on the quiz! The article had me right from the beginning because the book I am currently reading is set in Kars.

I wish my name had some sort of history. I was named after an actress named Yvette Mimieux. That's not such an interesting story. :(

S said...

Very cool. I am named after my grandmothers and my great-grandma. When I was younger I went by a nickname that was not on my birth certificate. That caused problems with teachers because they didn't understand why my parents didn't call me by my first name. In high school I did take my first name and dropped the nickname but my parents still call me by it. Names are very interesting!

Lisanne said...

So your name used to be Anik, in a way? That's interesting. I didn't know all of that history behind your name! So cool! Yeah, before meeting you in person, I always assumed that your name was pronounced "Annie." I also think that Niel's name is spelled a cool way! :)