I'd just like to get an opinion on this

[psychoanaleesis]

Hmmm, I found this interesting enough to post here... quite absurd but hey, I found a connection of mystic origin to Rand's first name and her general attitude on this site while surfing the interwebs: VigilantCitizen

and it quotes Aleister Crowley

“[baphomet] is ‘The Devil’ of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection … He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.”

- Aleister Crowley, Magick Book 4 (emphasis mine)

Now, I read on wiki about the possible origin of Rand's first name Ayn is suggestive of the word "Ayin" as it is said there (since she was of Jewish descent) and well, this was an "Ah, that makes a bit of sense..." moment - in the mythos context of Rand's life.

[syrakusos]

... in the mythos context of Rand's life.

Carl Jung posited the collective subconscious as the origin of archetypes reflected in the characters of the tarot. Timothy Leary found them in the alphabet - two rounds of 12 for 24 letters - as well as the zodiac, the Olympians, the months of the solar year, and so on. Whether we inherit this genetically or acquire it subconsciously from our social environment, none of it is any more than a suggestion. It may be an archetype of its own. In other words, human cultures all have religions, physical tools (and sets of them), language, rites of passage (independent of religion, perhaps), trade, war, art, ...

Prometheus, Atlas, ... Howard Roark as Daedalus: following Joseph Campbell we meet Dominque as she lets fall from her sky a Greek god, symbolic of her own fall; she is the Icarus whom he rescues in flight. Elements of myth can be transmogrified, but the elements are identifiable.

Aside from the mystical, I believe that it is suggested that Alissa Rosenbaum's father called her "Ayin" for her flashing eyes. Perhaps the simplest explanation is best.

Edited August 12, 2011 by Michael E. Marotta

[psychoanaleesis]

Aside from the mystical, I believe that it is suggested that Alissa Rosenbaum's father called her "Ayin" for her flashing eyes. Perhaps the simplest explanation is best.

I agree. That makes a whole lot more sense. It is rather interesting though for a person to take a nom de guerre that would ultimately represent an integration of facts about you but also, ties up with your subconscious.

As for the greek gods and Rand, I buy the explanation that they were not gods in the sense that is widely known today but rather, heroes of lore or at least projections of what man aspires to become - the ideal.

Edited August 12, 2011 by David Lee

[Reidy]

Here we go again. This isn't an opinion as you requested, but I'll state it anyway: the burden is on you in a case like this to provide hard biographical data; coulda-mighta-musta speculation isn't enough, one reason being that anyone can use the latter in support of any conclusion he pleases. The best explanation I've seen of the difference between fancy and scholarship is Lennox's review of Sciabarra.

Only a singularly weird father would call his kid "eye" or "light." In the photos I've seen from any age, her eyes were distinctly dark.

Edited August 12, 2011 by Reidy

[psychoanaleesis]

Here we go again. This isn't an opinion as you requested, but I'll state it anyway: the burden is on you in a case like this to provide hard biographical data; coulda-mighta-musta speculation isn't enough, one reason being that anyone can use the latter in support of any conclusion he pleases. The best explanation I've seen of the difference between fancy and scholarship is Lennox's review of Sciabarra.

Only a singularly weird father would call his kid "eye" or "light." In the photos I've seen from any age, her eyes were distinctly dark.

Reidy:

Right you are too but I'm simply curious how much she knew about her pen name before she chose it to be so. While I know I must do my due diligence, I merely want to pursue this up to well, the internet. I'm no scholar about names nor Rand since her biography is really not my area of interest. Like I said, I just happened to read it on VigilantCitizen while browsing and I thought the connections are intriguing... it rang bells in my mind but it wasn't exactly a eureka moment.

To be more direct, my reason for asking is to find out if "Ayn" was chosen because of it's mystical origins which I find contrary to what she has lived for. When Michael posited an alternative, I find that more logical and convincing.

If you're referring to the post Michael's, he said "flashing" not exactly "light" or light-colored eyes. Flashing... with intelligence? Because I do find her gaze enlivening and challenging. Looks at the picture at the top left corner*

[Reidy]

The flashing eyes we see in later photos were probably the result of pep pills.

If "ayin" has mystical connotations and she was down on mysticism, that is evidence against the Crowley conjecture (quick test of seriousness: what would count for you as contrary evidence?). So is the fact that she didn't choose the same spelling. So is the fact that, for one reason or another, she consistently played down her Jewish origins. If she'd wanted to play them up, she would have kept her last name.

Edited August 12, 2011 by Reidy

[Xray]

Hmmm, I found this interesting enough to post here... quite absurd but hey, I found a connection of mystic origin to Rand's first name and her general attitude on this site while surfing the interwebs: VigilantCitizen

and it quotes Aleister Crowley

“[baphomet] is ‘The Devil’ of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection … He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.”

- Aleister Crowley, Magick Book 4 (emphasis mine)

Now, I read on wiki about the possible origin of Rand's first name Ayn is suggestive of the word "Ayin" as it is said there (since she was of Jewish descent) and well, this was an "Ah, that makes a bit of sense..." moment - in the mythos context of Rand's life.

It looks like Rand constructed Ayn from the Finnish name "Aina":

Excerpted from a letter to a fan, 1937:

Letters of Ayn Rand, page 40

[Ayn Rand]: “Your letter inquiring about the origin of my name has been forwarded to me. In answer to your question, I must say that ‘Ayn’ is both a real name and an invention. The original of it is a Finnish feminine name. . . . Its pronunciation, spelled phonetically, would be: ‘I-na.’ I do not know what its correct spelling should be in English, but I chose to make it ‘Ayn,’ eliminating the final ‘a.’ I pronounce it as the letter ‘I’ with an ‘n’ added to it.” [Ayn Rand]

http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Aina

"In addition, Aina is a Finnish and Scandinavian variant of Aino (Finnish)."

Edited August 13, 2011 by Xray

[psychoanaleesis]

Quote

http://www.aynrand.o...aq_index2#ar_q3

Excerpted from a letter to a fan, 1937:

“Your letter inquiring about the origin of my name has been forwarded to me. In answer to your question, I must say that ‘Ayn’ is both a real name and an invention. The original of it is a Finnish feminine name. . . . Its pronunciation, spelled phonetically, would be: ‘I-na.’ I do not know what its correct spelling should be in English, but I chose to make it ‘Ayn,’ eliminating the final ‘a.’ I pronounce it as the letter ‘I’ with an ‘n’ added to it.” Letters of Ayn Rand, page 40

Well, that settles it. As always, she delivers it straight. Thanks Xray.

[Xray]

If "ayin" has mystical connotations and she was down on mysticism, that is evidence against the Crowley conjecture (quick test of seriousness: what would count for you as contrary evidence?)

As for Crowley, imo he was the type Ayn Rand would have loathed as as particularly disgusting exemplar of 'irrational mysticism'.

Only a singularly weird father would call his kid "eye" or "light." In the photos I've seen from any age, her eyes were distinctly dark.

It is not rare for parents to choose names for their children containing the element "light". The 'light' does not refer to physical characteristics but more to "light of my life" or to "clarity", "brightness", "pureness".

"Lucy", "Lucia", "Luz" for example contain the Latin "lux" ('light').

The "-nor" in "Eleanor" is of Arabic origin and means 'light'. 'Eli' = God - Eleanor: 'God is my light'.

Another example is the name of the ex-queen of Jordania: "Noor al-Hussein".

Edited August 13, 2011 by Xray

[Reidy]

Short answer: yes, but Rand's parents didn't.

They named her Alisa. The name derives from a flower and this, according to a past thread here on OL, from a Greek verb for being in pain or distress. This may not even be accurate, and if it is I doubt that they knew this.

Slightly longer answer: the conjecture was not that they gave her a name derived from "light" but that her father called her this, literally.

Here, too, I doubt that most parents who pick these names are aware of the etymology.