Why Aidyn?

I often get the question after people learn more about me and who I am, why did I choose the name Aidyn? Before I decided on a name I actually went through a number of channels to find the right one. The first was asking my parents what they would have named me had I been a boy. They had picked Andrew, which just didn't seem to fit. I didn't feel like I was similar to any Andrews that I knew. Then I asked my friends what they would pick as their boy names, the names for their future male children, and what they thought my name would be. I got a great deal of names and the ones specifically picked as potentially being mine all began with the letter "A." So from there I began looking at a bunch of different boys names that started with the letter A. I tried a few of them on but still nothing seemed to quite click. I realized that the power behind a name is the meaning. My birth name had meaning because it is the name that my parents had both decided on and it had meaning to them. Therefore my new name had to have meaning to me. I went through the names that I had thought of for my potential future children and those had meaning but not as my name. 

I ended up talking to various professors that I had while at Lynchburg about what was in a name. The more I talked to them the more I began to look into names tied strongly to different cultures. I looked through German names, Italian, English, and finally settled on Irish names. Gaelic names have strong ties to Irish heritage and have meaning behind them. One day while I was reading through boy names I found Aiden/Aidan. In Gaelic Aiden means "fiery one." I thought that the meaning was appropriate because, even though often docile, I have strong passions that drive me to be very animated when need be. However, while I loved the meaning I wanted to make the spelling fit me. I played around with it, writing in various styles and changing letters around. I had the sheet of paper I was using with me in class and one of my classmates leaned over to see what I was doodling and pointed to Aidyn written in a combination of harsh pointed lines and soft curves. She whispered,"That's the one." At first it caught me off guard because I wasn't aware that she had clued into what I had been doing. As I looked at the paper, at the word (it was still just a word at that point) I realized that she was right. As we were leaving class she got up and stood next to me while I was packing up and she said,"See you Wednesday, Aidyn. Oh and I like that name." The moment I heard Aidyn used in reference to me, it fit. It was no longer just a word but my identity.