Tag: dailyprompt-1871

Note: I write about everything and off-topic things that I thought was interesting or useful to the questions. The text is somewhat long.

I have three first names, but mostly I always keep one as the second name, and it’s my name Johanne that always is included as an important second part with deep personal meaning. I am Norwegian speaking and English can be affected by my native ways of expressions, so this can sound different than it seems to my mind. I’m also autistic and with several quite severe in type mental-health conditions like schizoaffective and strong OCD-like conditions together.

I used to dislike my name Torunn in particular as it is an unusual/rare name for my generation because it was used much more often in 1950s and 1960s Norway so when I was born in early 1990s it was less used. And it didn’t help that my peers/classmates either made fun of my names or just said some form of ‘oh, that’s my exactly my grandmother/aunts name!’. And every bully knows how to use any name as a form of harrassing the victims and in other forms of bullying tendency. However I’ve learned to love my names as I age and experiences show me values of embracing my differences with true compassion, plus my name Torunn has the meaning ‘loved by Thor’ in Norse which fit me well because I have a close relative named Tor.

Johanne has origins from Hebrew meaning ‘God is gracious/mercy of God’ and one of my mothers side great-grandmother name was Johanne. It also is related to my mother liking the song ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’ from 1980s about South Africa and related topics. My great-grandmother was of Finnish, Kven and Saami origins mostly and she was a unique personality and learned our languages as an adult woman because the policy of Norwegianization had limited her learning languages from parents who were told only to speak Norwegian language with children.

In my usual conversations with people I know from before I use either Ingvild or Torunn along with Johanne. In speaking with strangers or health-care workers/doctors I need to use all of my names to identify and I particularly remember being asked after I had a tonic clonic epileptic seizure outside in winter they needed to know my true name and I was so confused, but luckily my friend there helped me and I’m really thankful to him and even the fact that this five minutes seizure was outside in public space.

Thank you all for reading ❤

My birth name is Torunn and it’s not a middle name, it is of Norse origin and the meaning is close to ‘loved by Thor’. I have a close relative with the name Tor and there are plenty in our both sides family with Norse names like Jorunn, Solveig and Bjørn among others. I used to be kind of shameful about my name and it’s very uncommon in my generation, my experiences of people thinking it was unusual still happen even at 31 years now. But I love being a Torunn after all, it’s a special part of my life and identity. I’m an Ingvild and I’m a Johanne too, but my life would not be the same without this particular name growing up. I believe every experience has some potential for good/useful things happening at a certain point in life.

Thank you for reading this blog, I needed to write about my experiences of being different in several ways and share with you. I hope for bright moments in everyone’s life ❤ ❤

Daily writing prompt

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

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As I mention on my other blog I don’t have a middle name, but I have three first names and I use all of them in various occations.

My names are Torunn, Ingvild and Johanne and I’m not revealing my full name or the exact order of the first names. The first two are Norse origin and the third from Hebrew. I especially like the meaning behind my name Ingvild; ‘ancestors struggle’ which is very true of my background and being interested in genealogy research.

I used to feel not so good about having an unusual name for my generation but now I see the true value to it, it’s actually unique and part of who I am at the core.

And about my last name I can tell you it comes from a Northern Norwegian farm our ancestors lived in during the 1800s.

Thanks for reading ❤