Why couldn’t I be an Anna or Emily? I used to wish to have a basic, old fashioned “saintly” name that would let me simply blend into the crowd and not stick out. Instead, my mom and dad stuck me with Anise, a name that made me feel like a big old weirdo who had no chance of becoming Catherine-like at my private school. Thanks a lot. My teachers, coaches and even my friends (YES!) would mispronounce my name, saying An-ES or AN-US. You can imagine how insecure that made me feel. 

Although, as I got older, I was able to understand the meaning of my name, making me appreciate the uniqueness. My name in Arabic means "friendly" in short (Redmond). In a more warm and personable manner my name means what I aim to live my life by: someone who is friendly and gentle with others, someone whose words are consoling, someone whose presence brings calm and peace. I think that meaning is pretty saintly!

When people say my name wrong, making fun of it as a sexual term, it takes away the magic and purity of the meaning. Immature yet funny. Fine. But, when those words of purposeful mispronunciation escape from someone's mouth it feels like nails running along a chalkboard. Nevertheless, the mispronunciation never gave me a reason to hate my name. Hate never, embarrassed, sometimes. My Mom so intently picked my name, but Anise was not always her first choice. She was going to name me “Ronia Jr.'', she always says. Ronia is actually her name, but my Dad wouldn’t allow that. He always despised the “Jr’s” and the “thirds” because he always loved the originality of being the first person in your family with your own name. When my mom named me, she intertwined my Jordanian culture and my part of my Dad’s European heritage. In Britain, Anise is a girls name that comes from the “Anise '' spice which is made from licorice (Mangan). My mom always called me her little star attributing the nickname to the star-shaped “Anise” pods. 

Work Cited 

“Anise.” QuranicNamescom Anise Comments, QuranicNames, 22 July 2022, quranicnames.com/anise/. 

Redmond, Pamela. “Anise - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity.” Nameberry, Nameberry, LLC., 10 Mar. 2024, nameberry.com/b/girl-baby-name-anise. 

Mangan, Doireann. “Anise.” Anise - Baby Name Meaning, Origin and Popularity, XO Group Inc., 18 Jan. 2024, www.thebump.com/b/anise-baby-name.