Meyer

October 11, 2020 · by · in Blog

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A funny thing happened today. I was listening to a sermon on “Esther” and what her name meant along with the rest of the name meanings for the cast in this Bible story. I thought- I wonder what my name means in Hebrew. I looked it up- googled it and found both my first name and my middle name were listed with one common interpretation. Imagine- there are like 5-7 choices listed for both of my names and one is common to both. That common interpretation is:

Meira

Gender: Female. Origin: Hebrew. Meaning: Shining. The name Meira means Shining and is of Hebrew origin.

One who illuminates

Giving Light

Light

Shining

The internet is a treasure trove for connecting the dots. After I looked through 5-6 sites that confirmed these meanings, I found this one. Meyer- was the name that my maternal German great great great-grands traveled to America and were registered in Ellis Island under. How strange that my father would choose my first and second name- translated to Meira- Meyer from my mother’s side of the family. In fact, the second name was not his choice- but a misspelling by the nurse in the hospital.

This is for my kids and grandkids to ponder!!

Your cousin Randi Sue has the Meyer family tree records. Your maternal grandmother has the genetic Pseudocholinesterase deficiency- found during her first surgery at 80 yrs old when she didn’t wake up from anesthesia. The condition occurs in 1 in 3,200 to 1 in 5,000 people. Pseudocholinesterase deficiency (anesthesia sensitivity) is an autosomal recessive condition common within the Persian and Iraqi Jewish populations. Approximately one in 10 Persian Jews are known to have a mutation in the gene causing this disorder and thus one in 100 couples will both carry the mutant gene and each of their children will have a 25% chance of having two mutant genes, and thus be affected with this disorder. This means that one out of 400 Persian Jews is affected with this condition.

Meyer Name Meaning

German and Dutch: from Middle High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used also to denote a tenant farmer, which is normally the sense in the many compound surnames formed with this term as a second element. Originally it denoted a village headman (ultimately from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’). Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Meyer (from Hebrew Meir ‘enlightener’, a derivative of Hebrew or ‘light’). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Meidhir, from meidhir ‘mirth’. Danish: variant spelling of Meier 3.

And, now Wiki takes us full circle to Esther- when I looked up Persian Jews- to see if they were also called Ashkenazic Jews.

Persian Jews or Iranian Jews are Jews historically associated with the Persian Empire which became today’s Iran. The biblical Book of Esther contains references to the experiences of the Jews in Persia.

Ashkenazi Jews have a notable history of achievement in Western societies in the fields of natural and social sciences, mathematics, literature, finance, politics, media, and others. While they make up about 2% of the U.S. population and 0.1% of the world population, 27% of United States Nobel Prize winners in the 20th century, Time Magazine’s person of the 20th century, Albert Einstein was an Ashkenazi Jew. According to a study performed by Cambridge University, 21% of Ivy League students, 25% of the Turing Award winners, 23% of the wealthiest Americans, 38% of the Oscar-winning film directors, and 29% of Oslo awardees are Ashkenazi Jews.

And finally, I understand why the elementary school age great great great granddaughter of the Meyer immigrants- from Germany- is fascinated by the stories about the Holocaust and chose the Holocaust Museum in DC as her #1 place to visit. This awful part of the Second World War decimated the Ashkenazim, affecting almost every Jewish family. I can still remember visiting the museum with her dad when he was a teenager and feeling a cloud of oppression and overwhelming sadness there.

Big surprise- this grandaughter’s name means Kalanit- the national flower of Israel- a beautiful red anemone flower that is found all over the land of Israel.