My Answer . . .

. . . to the following Daily Prompt.

Write about your first name:
its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

When I was born, my parents named me Carmel.

Carmel translates to “garden,” or “orchard,” and I guess that sits very well with me – now!

According to the Bump, there are plenty of landmarks with this name, from Mount Carmel, a mountain range in Israel, to Carmel-by-the-Sea, the small beach city in California, and they go on to say: “With its lush, nature-inspired meaning, the name Carmel is sure to connect baby to any place on Earth.”

Oh yeah! That sounds just like me, and yet, it also sounds like someone else.

But Carmel isn’t my name now. In fact, Carmel was my name for only three days after which my mother insisted my name be changed. My mother often told me how, in changing my name, she gave a wonderful gift to her godmother – her Aunty Clare.

(You can read all about that story in my post A Very Different Me.)

Like now, back when I was born you had a couple of months to register a baby’s birth so there was nothing stopping my parents from changing my name to Clare before all the paperwork was submitted.

With the meaning of Bright, Shining, Clear, and Famous, I had/have big things to live up to.

I’m not sure I turned out to be famous, however, I have always been referred to as ‘bright and bubbly’; I like to think my inner light shines through and that I have a clear (more often, level) head on my shoulders.

–⋅ o ♥ o ⋅–

My Googling this morning led me to the following information regarding my name:

Qualities	Creative, Light-Hearted	✅✅
Lucky Color	Purple, Lilac, Mauve	✅✅✅
Ruling Planet	Jupiter	❌
Lucky Number	3	❌

Yes, I am creative and light-hearted and every shade of purple is etched into my bones. But I think the Moon is my ruler and that the number 5 has always been my lucky number.

For sure, anyone who knows me will agree that my heart and head are (totally) ruled by the Moon, and no offence to you Jupiter, but you’re a little harder to gaze upon.

As for my lucky number, the numerology of Clare might be 3, but the numerology of my first and surnames is 5 – woohoo! I guess my intuition kicked in on that one.

After a little more searching and I discovered each letter of your name contains its own particular meaning. Stumbling across the following this morning was freaky – very freaky – because this describes me to a T.

C You wear your heart on your sleeve. ✅ You are also very outspoken and upbeat. ✅ You are highly sensitive and emotional. ✅ You have a way of comprehending the spirit of mankind like none other. ✅

L You are very heady and tend to overthink rather than experience life. (?)

A You are your own person, a natural leader, ambitious and freethinking. ✅

R You feel things strongly and your rich, intense inner life emanates outward. ✅ You also have an excellent work ethic ✅ and can do your job with high amounts of energy. ✅

E You are freedom-loving, sensual and enthusiastic. ✅ You believe strongly in falling in love ✅ … in fact, you may do it quite often. (?) You can see a situation from many different sides. ✅

–⋅ o ♥ o ⋅–

I love my name.

I’m honoured my mother gave me such a wonderful gift.

And I’m equally honoured to be named after my mother’s godmother.

–⋅ o ♥ o ⋅–

I don’t always pay attention to what I’m looking at when it comes to WordPress. I create my posts in a web browser and, after opening my admin page, I quickly navigate to creating a new post.

But recently, with the installation of the new Jetpack app (replacing the WordPress app) on my iPhone, I did scrutinise the contents of the ‘My Site’ tab, discovering a daily prompt. Wow! Those daily prompts have been AWOL for quite some time.

My Answer today is for the prompt from January 23.

The daily prompt can be found in My Home/My Site and this is the prompt for today.

This year, as I intend to do more writing, I’m sure I’ll have some fun working on My Answer(s).