A rose by any other of name….

Once I was in a discussion with a friend of mine. He suggested that there was a lot to peoples’ name, and that we should seek the calling that our name’s suggest. He had a name that was quite a calling: “gift of God” and “light unto the world.” That’s very honorable.

The conversation stuck with me, and another friend a few years back tried to find the meaning of my name. She arrived at “fair one,” “sparkling stream,” and “wise one.” “Wise one” was her translation for “Rempel,” and she spent hours trying to search for the meaning of that name. Rempel is not the most usual of names in the area. I was flattered with the answer, so thought no more about it. I want to be wise. I will be wise. Heck, maybe I am wise…..

Well, maybe not. Being the German descendent that I’m, I recently had a conversation with a German student in the department about my roots. She asked what my family name was, and when I told her she laughed. Why did she laugh? Don’t worry, I asked. She said that my name was a verb in German….just add an “n” to the end.

So, here’s a few definitions.

umkrempeln - to turn upside down

anrempeln - to jostle

aufkrempeln - to roll up

rempeln - to barge in

That’s about right. My family tends to rempeln where angels fear to trod. All of a sudden, it makes sense that when I’m nervous I burst into loud speach, or when I make up my minded, I charge into a situation and throw open a door. Perhaps, I’m not as wise as I thought, but I can always remember to “umkrempeln” and “change my ways.”

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big sis Says:
September 14th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Thank you Jen, you just made my week! How perfect could our birth family name be? We’ve been living up to our name and not even knowing it! I should have included the Rempel in Hannah and Hailey’s names because they sure inherited the tendency - go Hannah the Viking and Hailey the Hurricane! Love you muchly!