What’s my middle name?

It’s Ann. It’s a family name, and I had an aunt with that name. I don’t think there was a deep significance to that name for my parents, but it drove me nuts when The Beach Boys recorded a song “ba-ba-ba Barbara ann”…. Over the years I have been sung to upon occasion, and that always made me a bit uncomfortable. As an only kid I’m not much for having the attention on me. I would rather be behind the scene.

But I think of Ann as a big gift. So what does the name mean? It’s a shortened version of a Hebrew name Hannah, and means grace or god,s favor. It’s the balance for my first name of Barbara, which means dark stranger, or foreigner in a distant land. It is of Greek origin, and the funny thing is that name reached its peak in the United States in the 1940s-1950s. According to the internet my first name has steadily declined in popularity since then. But Ann has held up and continues to be a frequently used classical name.

I really love knowing that our names have deeper meanings, and often capture personality, or behavioral traits. But that is a “which came first” argument, and I speculate there is a little bit of personality developing as a result of the name.

So what’s your middle name? And what significance does it have in your life?