When I chose the name Nina I picked it because it felt right and because I liked the way it sounded. I didn’t think of the meaning of it. When I went through my legal name change I didn’t know what I wanted my middle name to be so I haven’t had middle names for about ten years. As I get older I realize the importance of names. They have ancient meanings and those meanings must be in the collective unconsciousness.
Having only two names didn’t seem to be enough to signify a whole person, a whole identity, a whole life.
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Nina: of Spanish and Hebrew origin meaning “little girl”, in ancient Babylon “goddess of the deep waters”
Doria: of Greek origin meaning “gift from the sea”
Lilith: Assyrian origin: “of the night”
Arsenault: French: keeper of the arsenal, Arabic: house of fabrication
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Not exactly sure why, but it also seems appropriate to post this here.
This ancient tablet is very interesting to me. I am fascinated by mythological figures who are part animal and part human. I think that is very powerful. This goddess has wings and also webbed feet. She stands on a lion and has two owl guardians. She is sometimes identified by scholars as the demon Lilith. Sometimes she is identified as the Goddess Ishtar and sometimes as Inanna (another incarnation of Ishtar), who’s derivative name would be Nina.