"Melissa"

 Feeling called to share this...

I have told this story quite a few times to a few people upon meeting, but it might talk to some other people further away.

It is about my name, my given name, and its link to mythology.

Also, more personally, my father gave me this name. He actually changed my name soon after my birth, without telling my mother... Because my mother had another name in mind for me, long before I was conceived; she had chosen it when she was a child. It was inspired by a television show she loved.

My mother wanted to call me Laura.

But my father gave me the name Melissa. He was inspired to do so by his boss, whom he very much admired and who had studied in America, in Harvard. He told him it was an elegant name in the English-Speaking world...

And here I am writing in English most of the days. I know my writing is not perfect, but it all seems this situation was - somehow - guided from the start...

Anyway.

Here are the stories.


-

Greek origins

Melissa is a given name for a female child.

The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (mélissa), "bee," which in turn comes from μέλι (meli), "honey."

Melissa also refers to the plant Melissa officinalis (Lamiaceae family), known as lemon balm.

According to Greek mythology, perhaps reflecting Minoan culture, making her the daughter of a Cretan king Melissos, whose -issos ending is Pre-Greek, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name.

 She was one of the nymph nurses of Zeus, sister to Amaltheia, but rather than feeding the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name, fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight to his mouth. Because of her, Melissa became the name of all the nymphs who cared for the patriarch god as a baby.



Italian and Scottish poetry

The 16th-century Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto used the name "Melissa" for a good fairy (the good sorceress and prophetess who lived in Merlin's cave) in his poem Orlando Furioso.

The following is an ode to Melissa's birthday by Thomas Blacklock, a Scottish poet from the late 18th century.

Ode, on Melissa's Birth Day

Ye nymphs and swains, whom love inspires

With all his pure and faithful fires,
Hither with joyful steps repair;
You who his tenderest transports share
For lo ! in beauty's fairest pride,
Summer expands her heart so wide;
The Sun no more in clouds inshrin'd,
Darts all his glories unconfin'd;
The feather'd choir from every spray
Salute Melissa's natal day.

Hither ye nymphs and shepherds haste,
Each with a flow'ry chaplet grac'd,
With transport while the shades resound,
And Nature spreads her charms around;
While ev'ry breeze exhales perfumes,
And Bion his mute pipe resumes;
With Bion long disus'd to play,
Salute Melissa's natal day.

For Bion long deplor'd his pain
Thro' woods and devious wilds in vain;
At last impell'd by deep despair,
The swain proferr'd his ardent pray'r;
His ardent pray'r Melissa heard,
And every latent sorrow cheer'd,
His days with social rapture blest,
And sooth'd each anxious care to rest.
Tune, shepherds, tune the festive lay,
And hail Melissa's natal day.

With Nature's incense to the skies
Let all your fervid wishes rise,
That Heav'n and Earth may join to shed
Their choicest blessings on her head;
That years protracted, as they flow,
May pleasures more sublime bestow;
While by succeeding years surpast,
The happiest still may be the last;
And thus each circling Sun display,
A more auspicious natal day.

-


My father's story proven by statistics...


Popularity

Melissa became a popular name in the United States during the 1950s. Very popular from the 1960s through the 1990s, today Melissa is a relatively rare baby name; in 2010, fewer than 2,500 girls were given the name, compared with around 10,000 in 1993 and well over 30,000 at the name's peak popularity in 1979.

 In 2007, Melissa was the 137th most popular name for girls born in the United States, dropping steadily from its peak of second place in 1977. It was among the top ten most popular names for girls from 1967 to 1984.


-

This year, a young musician who hardly knows me and never met me in person wrote a song for me and named it 'Melissa'... A dream come true?

Otherwise, there is a song from America:

The Allman Brothers Band - 'Melissa' (Lyrics)

The Allman Brothers Band "Melissa" Eat a Peach. 1972