What's in a name?

My name is Tina. What's yours? Have you ever wondered what your name means, or where it comes from? As for me, and probably most Americans who don't know much about where their ancestors are from, we may not feel much of a connection with what it means or where the name originated. Although it may be fun to look up your name on a website such as behindthename.com, it may not have any real meaning there. What my name meant to me as a child was loner, outcast, nuisance, burden, ugly, and troublemaker. But, wait. That's not what the website says, right? So we must ask ourselves, do we have the ability to create a meaning for our name? I say yes. I can speak for myself by saying that I have changed the meaning of my name by making something of my life and cherishing the life that I have made. My name is Tina. Tina means courageous, fighter, lover, hater, dreamer, seeker, friend, and mother. So I ask, "What's in a name?" I'll tell you, it's what you make of it.