Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great Indian Sufi, once taught about the power of words -- and names. He said that a man will become exactly the meaning of what he's called by all his life.
Words and names have mystical powers that shape people and circumstances the way they are called. That is why ancient tribes, up to this day, consider name-giving as sacred, especially when it comes to naming newly-born babes.
Personally, I didn't actually open the dictionary of names before naming my children. Octavian and I simply mingled our names together and came up with the anagram Santika, which we settled as the new surname for our children. Then, we added Dharma for our firstborn, and Vidyaparamitha for our lastborn.
Did we know the meaning of the names?
No. We simply found them to sound nice, that's all.
That was one reckless decision, naming children after some words that we knew nothing about the meanings.
It wasn't until three years later that we looked up for the meanings in the dictionary of children names, and found out that:
Santika means peacemaker.
Santikadharma means compassionate peacemaker, while Santika Vidyaparamitha means very wise and virtuous peacemaker.
Well, I'm glad that we've named them prudently (out of sheer luck).
And hope that they'll grow up to be exactly what their names mean.
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