What’s Your Name?
My name is Asri, and I have a hard time being ‘Asri’.
Asri (pronounced Ash-ree) is an Indonesian name which means beautiful and pleasant to look at, usually related to nature. I used to hate the name; it sounds old-fashioned! It is like Margaret or Katherine in English, I suppose. Probably no Millennial parents will give their daughter that name unless they are old at heart.
Asri also means ‘by time’ in Arabic and is a Surah in Quran.
‘By time,
Indeed, mankind is in loss,
Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.’- Recited from Al-’Asr: 1–3
I started to feel okay being named ‘Asri’ (lol) when foreigner friends of mine pronounced my name beautifully. I fully understood that it was just how they speak, that it was their accents, but I could not help but love the sound of it. I also thought there is something classic, Indonesian, and authentic about Asri, and I quite like it.
Moreover, the name Asri reflects a personality I wish I would have: the sense of contentedness and calmness only nature could provide to a person, which makes him love being in the presence of nature. Becoming a person who can bring out those feelings from someone is something I still need to work on.
Perhaps you or your friends also hate the name given by your parents. (I once read a novel and frowned, ‘Why on earth would parents name their son ‘Uranus’? I mean, Uranus?!’) Yet, maybe you just have not yet realised that your name more likely will shape who you are. Finding meanings behind it and actually becoming it sounds quite a journey, don’t you think?
Asri
Working on being me
Originally posted on Wordpress
