The Name "Christine".

My name is Christine Baumgartner. I share that name with the German supermodel, Christine Baumgartner, who happens to be married to Kevin Costner. However, I am not the German supermodel and no; my parents did not name me after her. My devout catholic parents gave me the name “Christine” because they claimed that it was a good saint’s name and continued to name all my siblings after saints as well. My dear mother originally wanted to name me “Christiane” after the CNN reporter; however there was no saint named Christiane.

 The legend of Saint Christine of Tyre, of whom I was named after, was that she was born into an extremely wealthy, pagan family. She was told to be exceptionally beautiful and wanted by many men, but her father had envisioned her to be a pagan priestess and therefore locked her away so none could steal her purity. It is said that an angel had visited her while she was locked away and Christine stopped practicing paganism and reverted to Christianity. Her father was displeased with Christine turning to Christianity and thus had Christine tortured until she had perished. The Catholic Church recognizes Christine of Tyre as a saint because of her martyr death.

My first name “Christine” has many different meanings. In the Greek, Latin, and American culture the name “Christine” simply means “Christian”. In French, my name means “follower of Christ”. The most interesting one that I read (and the one I happen to like most) was in the urban dictionary which said that my name “Christine” meant a deity, meaning a god/goddess. My last name “Baumgartner” is a very common German/Swiss name and it means “tree gardener” or someone that has owned/worked in an orchard. This is exactly what my ancestors on my dad’s side did for many years.

There are many times that people get my name wrong. People have the tendency to call me “Christina” or “Christy” and every single time I correct the person saying, “No, my name is Christine”. I usually don’t like when people call me by something other than my actual name because I always think back to the time when my mother told me, “I gave you that name Christine for a reason, if I wanted to name you Christina or anything else than I would have”.

If someone asked me if I would change my name, I would most likely tell them that I wouldn’t. I haven’t met a lot of Christine’s in my life and so my name seems to be pretty unique to me. Besides, I couldn’t imagine living my life under another name, perhaps if I get married and change my last name, but even then the idea of having another name just seems odd. Changing names would feel like having a completely different identity. At least that’s what I think of when people change their name. It makes me feel like that person is trying to reinvent themselves or trying to change their identity, which isn’t always a bad thing. However, I am completely satisfied with my name as it is and I couldn’t imagine being named something other than Christine Baumgartner.