Manna?

This is not the only place I have chosen the name "Manna" for myself, and I have been asked just how I chose Manna as my very own name. Well, oh, you know, the Jews were hungry in the desert, and God snowed food on them like bread crumbs, and it was tasty tasty Manna, or yeast or something. But that's not where my name came from, because Manna's not really my name for one thing.

My name is Amanda Manfredo. And if you look closely, you will find 2 mans in my name, I'm a man, duh. Everyone knows that the singular of man is Mannum, so since I have 2, I need the plural, Manna. But that's also not from whence cometh my name.

Manfredo means cold hand in Italian (sort of - mana freda). But that's not really my husband's last name. When his family came to the US from Naples, their last name was Mambre. But immigration officials changed it not to Smith or Jones, but to Manfredo which sounded more American. I have very little of my own Italian blood, so I am Italian by injection. And I am not really a man, nor a hand, but I might be a law.

Amanda means "worthy of love." And if you look in a religious baby name book, it means "worthy of God's love." And because of his love for me, my oldest nephew (now 13), when he was learning to talk, tried to say my name. For a long time he called me "Aunt Manna," and the rest of the family picked it up and called me Manna for a while too. I like it.

I have also been called Beth, Magna, Mandy, Goofy, Michael, Donald, Cleopatra, PJ and Sciencebabe.

My nephew's name is Gabriel. Gabriel is the name of an angel. In Islam, he is called the chief of the four favoured angels and the spirit of truth, and in some views Gabriel is the same as the Holy Spirit. I think it's good that a child with this namesake gave me this name.