The Meaning of a Name

Have you ever considered what your name means?  When considering what to name a child some people think “what sounds good?” while others think “who will this child be?”.  No matter what side of the spectrum you’re on we all know that our names help shape who we are.  So I thought I’d share a little bit about my name…  My name “Assad” is ( a boy’s name) and variant of Asad (Arabic: أسد‎) and originally comes from two sources onef rom an Arabic personal name, As‛ad ‘happiest’, ‘luckiest’ or ‘more fortunate’, a superlative adjective derived from sa‛īda ‘to be lucky or happy’. The other source comes from the root word meaning "lion".  Assad is not a popular first name for men and an equally uncommon surname or last name for all people. (1990 U.S. Census) and is probably a lot less common now due to the conflict in Syria.  Now I wouldn’t say a name is a self fulfilling prophecy but…It is interesting that in some ways the meaning of my name parallels some of my personal characteristics.