The Meaning of Name: MAHESYA ABBI ALQANTARA

It was quite difficult at the beginning to find a unique and good name for our second child. Since the beginning of my pregnancy I just had the feeling that I would have a baby boy, instead of a baby girl. Physical changes that happened to my body during pregnancy, specially in the first trimester, convinced me that I would have a baby boy. :p I had small acne all over my face during the first trimester, it was hard for me to put make up on my face. Then on the second trimester I had skin rash, like small red spots all over my neck, chest, shoulder and back. It was very very very itchy and dry. I had to use aloe vera gel regularly and use a non-soap formula shower gel when taking shower and the doctor also gave me special cream for itchy skin. To make more sure that I was having a baby boy, we also asked the doctor about the gender of the baby and he said that it was 90% boy. Yeay! We were so excited!! ^_^

So we started to find a baby boy name that starts with letter M. We had several choices. It was strange that this time we did not have lots of difficulty to find a good baby boy name. On my first pregnancy it was sooo difficult to find a good baby boy name that starts with letter M, but this time it was difficult to find a baby girl name that starts with letter M. This time we decided to give a more “Indonesian” name for our baby boy because with Myesha, we already gave her an “international” name. So we search either from traditional Javanese name or from Sanskrit origin. After long search, long discussions and long thoughts, we decided to give name to our baby boy “Mahesya” because it rhymes with “Myesha”. Hahahaha... Mahesya is originally come from the word “Mahesh”. Mahesh in Sanskrit/Hindi means “great ruler”. I would say it as a “great leader”.

Mahesya, the thinker baby... :p

After choosing the first name, we also decided to make our second child's initials same as Myesha, M.A.A., because Myesha's name is Myesha Amelie Adele. This part is the hardest one. Hahahaha...

On December 2011, Danang went to watch FIFA Club World Cup semifinals F.C. Barcelona vs Al Saad in Yokohama Stadion with his friend. Danang is a big fan of F.C. Barcelona. If you also a fan of soccer, maybe you know Barcelona's young player, Thiago Alcantara [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiago_Alc%C3%A2ntara]. He currently plays as central midfielder in F.C. Barcelona and he is one of the most talented young players in his generation. So, Danang wanted to give “Alcantara” as the second or third name of Mahesya. But first we had to find the origin and the meaning of “Alcantara”.

After googling it, we found “Alcantara family crest & history” [http://www.houseofnames.com/alcantara-family-crest]. It says that the Alcantara surname derived from the place name Alcantara on the Tagus river in the province of Caceres, Extremadura, Spain. Alcantara derived from the arabic word “qantara” which means “bridge” with the definite article “al”. The bridge in question was built about the year 105 by the Romans and the village was named for the bridge by the Moors. The bridge Alcantara is still standing today.

After knowing the meaning of the word Alcantara, Danang suddenly just had the idea to give the whole meaning of Mahesya's name as “great leader who is able to connect knowledge (with the world)”. In Indonesian is “Pemimpin yang menjembatani Ilmu”. ^_^

So, finally, we had to find a word that means “knowledge” to complete the puzzle. After searching and searching, we found that the word “Abbi”, originally from Javanese, means “knowledge” (in Indonesian is ilmu/pengetahuan). Yeay!! That's it!! We got our second M.A.A in our family!! Hahaha.. :D

excited to meet little brother... :D

Now we just have to find a nickname for Mahesya, because calling him “Mahesya” makes us confused since it's similar to “Myesha”, most of the time we made mistake calling “Mahesya” with “Myesha”... hahahaha... Until this moment we couldn't find the perfect nickname. Some of our friends and family gave us some ideas such as “Asya”, “Mabi”, “Esya”. I was thinking about “Alqa” but Danang said that “Matcha” would be unique because “matcha” means “green tea” in Japanese, since Mahesya is born in Japan. :p So, what do you think? Can you give us more ideas? Please leave your comment & let us know... :D