Names

You should totally ask to be called Queen Latifah.

hey there are latifah's here. it could work.

Layla just reminds me of that Persian love story from which the song "Layla" takes its name. In it, Layla is the object of such passionate unrequited love that this particular man goes mad and wanders endlessly in the desert. It is supposed to be an example of the concept of love that predated notions of chivalry. Now I will quote what I am too lazy/ill-comprehending to say myself:

'In his discourse on "True Discipleship", Meher Baba uses the story of Majnun and Leyla as an example of how all love leads to the Master: “The fundamental requisite for the candidate who would be a true disciple is an unquestioning love for the Master. All the other streams of love ultimately join this great river and disappear in it; this is illustrated by the story of Majnun and Leyla. Majnun loved Leyla so intensely that every moment of his life he was filled with thoughts about her…The utter self-denial and sincerity of his love ultimately led him to his master.” In this version of Nizami’s epic poem, accepted worldwide as a work of genius, translator Rudolf Gelpke stays as close as possible to the original, preserving all the poignancy, heartache and devotion of this story of human love as it ascends to divine love."'
-Sheriar books online (of a translation)

yeah i'm familiar with the story of Majnun and Layli as it is reiterated in the Baha'i mystic work The Seven Valleys. I know a baha'i guy named Majnun after the character, unfortunately in arabic it translated pretty much to idiot, so he had to use a different name in Israel.

Do you know what Shamssia means? It could be quite nice to have a name with spcial meaning and also sounds nice. Beats heck out of Wookie (actually I do know someone who has that as her nickname, believe it or not). I vote for Layla out of the 2 you suggested.

You might remember I, too, have an African name - Jenneh - which means gentle.

Love,
Mom

Shamssia, or samssia means ray of light. not all that bad, but i'm not sure if its me. It's so cool to know that you had an african name too, it makes this experience feel less weird to know that you did a lot of it too. :)

Oh do I understand the need for a country-specific name...

Apparently, Joy is a very, very difficult name all around the world. You'll have to tell me if Juliet is quite so difficult. Even in Northern Ireland, people couldn't understand how to say it unless I wrote it down. (Yes, the accent is that different) English speakers all over the world want to call me Joyce or Jo Ann, and people with less English call me Jo or Joey. This is tremendously confusing for people, especially in Palestine. You should see the looks of horror on the faces of these little boys: "You have a boy's name?"

I've tried, with little success, to have country-specific names: In Latin America, I'm Lusia (Louise being my middle name) or Felicidad (meaning Joy), in Hebrew I'm Semka (I don't know how to transliterate that...) and I'm told that in Irish I would be Shogha. Palestine is my favorite, though. I actually thought about going by Layla, but the people of Marda settled on Saida (S-i-e-duh) which is very good translation and very pretty.

Sorry to completly go off on a very self-indulgent tanget, but I love this problem! Isn't it cool to get a new name? I very much like Shamssia and Layla too. But is it possible to get any cooler than Queen Latifah? hee hee, indeed.

I hope your well and that you have fun with your new name!

They're both lovely. And don't worry--you've got a couple of multi page letters coming. Enough info to last you a while.

the point is frequency of letters my dear, not length love.