I was reading my own blog mind you (haha) and saw a “prompt” that said “Where does your name come from?” Good thing to write about. I hadn’t thought about that. Ha!

Well, here goes. My first name is after my mother, Evelyn. She always told me it was from Eve, the first woman on Earth, as in Adam and Eve. It actually is derived from the old Medieval French name “Aveline.” There is a pretty long history of the name Evelyn and its variants online.

The name “Evelyn” itself is of English origin associated with meanings “desired” or “beautiful.” (Gosh…thanks!!!) It also used to be a name for both men and women years ago. However in the current times it’s become only a woman’s name. In Polish, which I am, it’s “Ewelina” (pronounced ev-ve-leena). Yes, I have been called that as well. I’ve also been called Evenly, Eleven, even Twelve and Thirteen (joking around). My big sister calls me “Eves” for whatever reason she uses plural. Hahaha!

So now the last name, Czaja (pronounced chah-ya) is not the most common Polish name around. Not a ton of us in the USA. You’d think we would all be related. But we’re not. In fact being from Chicago, there was a family on the far South Side with the exact name of my Dad, Mom and older sister. And we didn’t know the other family existed until we got their mail one day…sent to the wrong address. We were floored! Ha!

This is my Father’s lineage in Poland. It apparently has roots in the name “czajka” which means “lapwing” (bird). My nephew actually drew a picture of a lapwing a number of years ago. He researched the name and found a bird. Ha! I had also read some time ago that my name Czaja was in the same family with the Russian name Tchaikovsky, like you know, the great Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. I’ll take it!

And…my Mom’s maiden name, LaBuda, is derived from the Polish word “labud” which means “swan.” So my Mom was Evelyn Helen Mary Labuda (swan) Czaja (lapwing). And my Mom’s 2 sisters had married names Sowa (owl) and Drozd (thrush). So they were birds too!

So as you can see, my family was for the birds!!!! And we’re all musical. And Mom and I had really good singing voices which I took as far as becoming an opera singer. And with our close relatives also being for the birds, I guess that explains how nuts we all are. Ha!

Interesting stuff investigating your own name. And lots of information actually tracing the origins and meanings…how it came into being the actual name it is. Haha! But with all that being said, I’m very happily Evelyn Virginia Sophia Czaja.

Now go out there and start investigating your own name. Seriously. There’s tons of information online that you can begin to trace. You just might find something as incredible as I did…that both sides of my family were for the birds! Chirp chirp. Ha!

Enjoy!

https://www.makingmusicwitheve.weebly.com

https://www.avon.com/repstore/eczaja