13th
She’s Gonna Be Mad…
So my sweet wife has one of the coolest names ever.
Phileena.
Since I was an Ancient Biblical Languages minor in college (seriously), I used to tell her that it meant “Fair Flower of the Sea” in Greek. I lied.
It actually does have Greek roots and could loosely be translated, “Lover of Humanity.” Which would be a true description of her.
What a great name. Seriously. But poor Phileena gets it coming and going. No one can spell OR pronounce her first or last name.
In September while we were on vacation in Spain, we visited one of our favorite little breakfast beer bars in Blibao. I grabbed the “Martini” coaster sitting underneath my cup of coffee and started scribbling down the versions (or should i say, malformations) of her name that have emerged over the years. I made a “Best Of” list. And here it goes:
- Philly
- Philly Poo
- Felini
- Leena
- Fateem
- Patina
- Pee Wee
- Puwee Wee (as a 2 year old, Adina came up with this one)
- Philomeena
- Faleen
- Fareen
- Philasteena
- Philoweeni
- Philapreena
- Philapeena
- Feneena
- Fajeena (she hates it when I use this one, not sure why…)
Pretty good ones eh?
But the best reversal was on one visit to Lima, Peru when I was mess’n with Phileena’s name and Pati, one of the girls who lives and works on the streets, came to her defense and bestowed upon me the new name, PhileenO ;)
Anyway, Phileena is a beautiful name, hopefully she’s not mad at me for sharing the varitions of it that endear her to us all.
