Hester

Hess-ter

It's a new name I've started to think about and quite like, if not love.

Recently, name wise, I've been in a bit of a rut. All my old names I used to love, I'm now close to deleting from my name list. In the hours in between, when my kids are sleeping, or my husband has taken them out to wear down their energy levels, I discovered (or rather re-discovered) Hester. I really took notice of it for once. At first I simply loved the name Hettie.

I'm a big nickname person currently. Loving names like Minnie, Lottie and Artie, but I'm a firm believer that a nickname cannot possibly be the first name. By all means, call them Minnie at home, but allow them to have some sort of choice of their name in, for example, their professional lives. They may prefer for their boss to call them Minerva and to friends and family to call them Minnie. Its always hard however, to love the name the nickname comes from isn't it? You see Minerva, makes my face scrunch up. Hester however is a breath of fresh air. I think teemed with a jazzy middle name Hester could be just right!

Hester "Hettie" Violet, Hester Louise May, Hester Lucille, Hester Tallulah Rose? I'm not sure about the middle names, I'm still mulling them over!

What is also important is the meaning! I love the meaning of names, I've always found my own name's meaning rather boring "Laurel Wreath" while people, like Sarah's name (especially special when a child) means "Princess". When I was smaller I was very angry at this boring meaning. Hester's meaning is "Star", it is of Greek Origins and a variant of the name Esther.

Another variant is Hestia. If my hubby didn't like Hester, I think I would then move on to convincing him to like Hestia, the Greek Goddess of the Hearth. Now, it's funny when I looked up Hetty it had a different meaning again, this time 'Myrtle Leaf', 'Star' (as was Hester) and 'God Rejoices'.

There have been many famous Hester's over time. Hester Prynne is the heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlett Letter". I haven't read it but I'm hoping shes a good, gracious and strong willed Heroine.
Hester Thrale was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and eighteenth-century life.
Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope is remembered by history as an intrepid traveller in an age when women were discouraged from being adventurous.

Hester is also a place in Western Australia, named after a settler, Edward Godfrey Hester. There is Hester Street in Manhattan. It is a symbol of Immigrant history, used in the 1975 film 'Hester Street'

I'm going to continue thinking about Hester and Hettie. Its close to the top of names I like. But then again on my list there are hundreds of names, especially for girls. I had better keep mulling it over and get back to the children, bed night stories, perhaps I'll get some inspirations from them for middle names, or other names to add to the never ending maybe list!