Dowsing for Divinity

I like my name.

Yvonne means a yew bow or yew tree. The yew tree is associated with death and is used as a guardian of churchyards (the tradition of it guarding a burial place is pre-Christian I think). On some social media sites, I used to go by Yewtree as that’s a translation of Yvonne.

Aburrow means “at the walled town” — I had hoped it was “at the burial mound” but that would be Berrow, derived from Beorh, whereas the —burrow part is from burh, whence we also get borough, and the wall is meant to keep out invaders as it’s an Old English word. The Norman castle was meant to keep the population subdued; the Old English walled town was meant to keep out Viking raiders and Norman invaders.

My dad wanted to call me Angharad, which is Welsh for “beloved” so I used that sometimes.

And I also used to have Wyvern as a nickname — it started because someone jokingly called me Wy-Vonne and I said if you’re going to call me that it should be Wyvern like the type of dragon 🐉 But I’m only called that by a very specific group of people.

Aburrow is my “maiden” name—as a feminist I don’t go in for changing my name to my husband’s name.

Secret magical names are another matter altogether, and they are a secret. 🌹

Do you like your name and/or nicknames? Have you changed your name?

Indigenous people in Canada often have an English, French or anglicized name, because they were made to take them, and a name in their Indigenous language. Sadly it’s very expensive to legally change your name in Canada so they’re stuck with the English or French names.

Thanks to Crow for the writing prompt, what’s in a name? ✍️