Turns Out It Was Popular

When my parents picked my name, I believe my mother thought it was unusual and beautiful. When asked why they named me “Lisa”, my mother would only say that she really liked the name.

Lisa is a short form of the Hebrew name Elizabeth, which means “God is my oath” or “God is bountiful.” It is also a diminutive of the Latin name Lysa, which means “consecrated to God.”

At the time of my naming, my family knew of no other girls named Lisa. By the time I got to high school, there were 3 other Lisa’s in my class of about 400. There were Lisa’s everywhere!

I have always loved my name, but people would have trouble remembering my name, or they would tell me outright that I didn’t ‘look’ like my name. I was a pretty girl, with blond hair, green eyes, and I was slender. But apparently that didn’t fit. Those comments stung, I’ll admit. If you can’t even possess your name with power and positivity, how can you possess anything?

I did learn to “own” my name. I love that it has meaning associated with faith in God. I know it inspired me to choose names for my children that meant something. Jason, “healer,” Joanna, “God is with us,” Joseph, “God will add,”. Together with their middle names, their names tell a small story, which I love. That was a gift their father and I gave them, hoping their lives would be rich with meaning from birth. There is power in a name, I am sure of it. When someone speaks your name, how does it make you feel? You know you are named, are known, are valued, even loved.

I just have to add that although my parents named me and my 3 sisters, you never knew which name my mother would call us when frustrated or angry enough. She would go down through the list of our names, with an “I mean”, in between each one until she hit the right name. And then you were in trouble!