S5.15-119 - What's in a Name... "Francois"

0:00Hey there, I'm Jayma, and over the past few years I've become very interested in onomatology, the study of names. I've never really liked my name until I researched the meaning of it. My name means paradigm shifter, and I'd like to shift your paradigm by shining a light on onomatology, and how it can potentially help you find your purpose, help you communicate better with others, or even both. In each episode, I ask someone eight basic questions regarding their first name. So sit back, relax, and try to shift your paradigm with this next episode. All right, so on today's episode, I'm excited for this one. Part of the reason why I love my podcast is because I get to know people who are basically strangers, and I sometimes reach out to people on LinkedIn, and if they are interested and agree to do the podcast, they obviously email me back,

1:02and this person agreed to do it, and I'm super pumped to learn more about him. So welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. Very excited to be here. Yeah, awesome. So if you don't mind, could you give the listeners, just tell them your first name, where you're podcasting from, and a little bit about yourself. Yeah, absolutely. My first name is Francois. I'm podcasting from Illinois currently, and a little back myself. So I'm originally from South Africa, been in the US since around 2014. I am a musician, and I work for a software company. So yeah, I'm really excited to be here today, recently, so that you interviewed one of my my friends John from HR, like a boss, and yeah, it's just really cool to be here. Thank you. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. And I have never interviewed anybody with your first name. So I'm excited to explore it more with you. And I was curious

2:04before I brought my podcast up to you, did you know what the meaning of your first name was? No, actually not. I think, you know, maybe sometime very, very long ago, I like briefly looked it up, but I honestly can't even remember exactly what that was, not even enough to try and, you know, to, yeah, try and relay that. So at least then currently, I actually have no real idea what the meaning is. Yeah. Really? Okay. Well, I will tell you what I found. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. So your first name, Prince Wah, is a traditional French masculine name. And the equivalent in English is Francis. It's derived from Latin, meaning Frenchman or free man. And it has roots in the Frankish tribe. And it says, so like, that's the definition I found. Then I kind of break

3:09it down. So I looked up what is the symbolism of free man. And free man is a person who is entitled to full political and civil rights. And then I looked up the symbolism of just France, since it says Frenchman. And France symbolizes a rich blend of revolutionary ideals, deep rooted cultural heritage and national resilience. So I'm just curious. After me giving you that information, what are your thoughts? I mean, that's, that's very fascinating, definitely, very cool to hear. As soon as you said free man, that kind of rung about, and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I remember actually reading that when I looked at my name way, way back. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know if I have any specific thoughts on that exactly, but yeah, it's definitely cool to, to kind of know. I know that

4:11my name probably came to me sort of because there's a lot of French speaking countries in Africa. So probably, you know, like the French names probably traveled down from South Africa. And so, yeah, the Frenchman part, you know, that doesn't surprise me one, but yeah, I kind of like the free man part of it. Yeah, yeah, not gonna lie. Awesome. Well, and do you speak French? No, actually, I speak Afrikaans, which is like a derivative of Dutch. So, yeah, yeah, it's like 70-ish percent Dutch or something like that. Okay. Yeah. I have two people from South Africa on my podcast. One is Cassie. You'll have to go back and listen to hers. Okay. And then Elzette as well. Oh, cool. All right. Yeah, I'll definitely have to give that a listen. Yeah, for sure. I have a group of friends from South Africa and they're great people, so. Always, always love hearing that. Yeah. And the food that they make is like amazing. I can't even

5:14explain it, but like the meat and the potatoes and stuff that they put in the cast iron. You probably know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I was just in South Africa. Between November and December, I spent a month there back visiting family. And the food was definitely one of my favorite parts. I got, you know, my grandma and my mom to cook all my favorite things for me again. And we make savory pies there. That's a very popular thing in South Africa. So every time I walked past a shop that has savory pies, I had to stop and buy one, even if I wasn't hungry. Yeah, I absolutely love and miss the food very much. I'm trying to get better at, you know, cooking at the same way authentically. Yeah, with some successes and some failures. Yeah. When I'm curious, since you've lived in two different countries, when I was talking about how like deep-rooted cultural heritage, since that's like the symbolism of France, where do you feel like you are most comfortable? I'm just curious. In South Africa or in

6:19America, or is it kind of equal? That's actually a very interesting question, because they've shifted over the years. I noticed, especially now this very last time that I went to to South Africa. As soon as I got there, I could feel this doesn't quite feel like home anymore. So that was a strange feeling. I think it's the first and I also got citizenship, American citizenship in October of 2024. So it was the first time that I went into South Africa with not my South African passport, but my American passport. It all felt very different. I would say, you know, I feel more comfortable in the US at this point. It was just a strange thing for me to kind of come to terms with, because I hadn't really given it much thought. And then when I got there, I started realizing it. I was like, wow, yeah, I feel more American than South African at this point. But I was like, where do I belong? I don't know. Yeah. Would you say that like either close friends or family would describe you as being like a really independent person? I'm just curious. Yeah, I think so.

7:24Really? Okay. I feel like it takes like some guts and to definitely be independent for you to move to a completely different country. I don't think I could do it. I think they would definitely say I'm stubborn. That's for sure. But yeah, yeah, no, I definitely think that would say I'm pretty independent. You know, I definitely try to do as much myself as I possibly can. And sometimes kind of difficult for me to have to rely on a lot of other people for things. Yeah, yeah, but you know, try to keep a good balance there. Okay. Cool. So I take it, you like the meaning of your name, would I describe? Yes, yeah, yeah, I definitely do. Could you repeat the Freeman part? Yeah. So like the symbolism of Freeman? Yes. Yeah, a person who is entitled to full political and civil rights. Yeah, I mean, that obviously, you know, is like, yeah, I like to be entitled to

8:31full rights, right? Yeah. I kind of like that. But yeah, I just like the kind of like, I guess, feeling that the word Freeman gives you, you know, like being free. That's also, you know, what I think most of us want. Yeah, do you find it empowering? In a way, yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Awesome. I'm just curious. Have you ever been in the military? No. Okay. No. Okay. And do you know how your parents chose your first name? Not exactly. If I had to take my best guess, like I mentioned earlier, I think the French name is kind of traveled from, you know, some of the French-speaking African countries. My best guess is they probably like the way it sounded. They probably thought it sounds fancy or something. And, you know, they were like, yeah, we're going to name in Francois. I know it's kind of a common name, sort of not like one of the most common names in South

9:33Africa. But, you know, there are definitely quite a few people named Francois in South Africa. So I'm not sure how exactly they decided to land on it, to be honest with them. Yeah. I'm glad that you brought that up because I was looking at the popularity of the name in the US. And it says that it peaked, that name peaked popularity in the United States in 1992 with 43 recorded births, with that name. So it's not that popular at all. Very unique around the area. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. And then have you ever had the thought cross your mind growing up? Like, I wish I had a different name. Or have you always liked your name? I've had the thought, yes, I've not always liked my name. And I find it pretty funny when I think of it now. Yeah. As like, I think it was around like when I was a teenager or so. For some reason, I just didn't like my name a lot at all.

10:39I don't know exactly why, but I remember wishing I had a different name or kind of wanting to change my name. And it's funny how, you know, the responses I've gotten since I came to the United States and you know, positive responses, of course, to my name. That has very much shifted. I definitely got over it pretty quick, you know, not liking my name. But when I came to the United States, I actually thought back to that and, you know, a while back. And I was like, huh, can you believe you then used to like your name? And, you know, now I enjoy the positive responses a lot, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I like the way it looks too. And it's different. Do people try to call you Frank or anything else? Yeah. I get quite a few different variations, like Frank, Frankie. Franchi is one. And it's actually some of my, some of my best friends that, you know, call me Franchi, that's became a real thing between like, especially like the music network that I'm a part of.

11:40So I kind of, I actually enjoy it. And then, yeah, I mean, my sister had a bunch of nicknames for me too, you know, all kinds of nicknames. But those were probably the most common. Yeah. Okay. Have you ever had anyone miss pronounced her first name? Yes. Just last night, actually. I was at Prenera Bread and I ordered, I ordered a sandwich and they, they read it out as, as Francis. So that's pretty common. I get Francis a lot. And Frank Weiss, I hear that quite often actually. And then, yeah, a few, few other mispronunciations that I can't exactly recall right now. Yeah. Are you pretty laid back about it when that happens? Or do you have like any kind of like, gut feeling like, oh, this is like, frustrating or annoying? At this point, I'm honestly very laid back about it. It really doesn't bother me at all anymore.

12:41But I, I will admit, at some point, I, you know, it definitely did hurt me. I don't know exactly why, but it definitely did. I would exactly what you just said. This kind of like feeling would come up and, you know, I would just just feel kind of annoyed by it. But I actually have someone who works with me who's called Francis. And we get mistaken for each other all the time. So we very much embraced it at this point. And we just like basically say we're the same person. Or we'll like, if we don't want to do something, we're like, yeah, you can send it to the other one. So I found enjoyment in it actually at this point. Nice. Yeah. Well, and if you were forced to change your first name, is there a name that you really like that you would change it to? So thinking back to the time where I didn't like my name very much. And I kind of wanted to change it. I remember at that time, for some reason, I was quite fascinated and intrigued by the name Matthew. I just really liked

13:41the name Matthew. So that would probably be it because I haven't given it much thought other than other than that, you know, unless it's something really cool, like, you know, is it your slash or something? But you should go back on my podcast and listen to the episode with Matthew. He was a great one to interview. And that name means gift of God. So that's a good. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. All right. And I have two more questions for you. Okay. So I know you haven't sat very long with understanding the meaning of your name. But now that you know, do you think that the meaning of free man or Frenchman, do you think that that has any kind of relevance on the way that you behave or the way that you see the world around you? That's kind of tricky to answer, to be honest. Like, especially the way I behave,

14:49maybe more the way I behave than the way I see the world around me, especially like if you mentioned it right, having lived in two countries. And I don't remember the exact wording you used for the definition or the meaning of the symbolism behind France, right? But yeah, it's tying back into that. Like, I think in that way, probably the way I live a little bit, because and just, you know, free man meaning like full political rights and that type of stuff, not directly tied to the actual meaning of it or the symbolism of it, but just the word free man, I guess, free, free man. I really like, I'm a bit of like a wondering soul if I can put it that way, you know, I really like to go and explore and I kind of, I don't ever feel tied to just one place in a sense. I always have this deep longing to just see more and expand my horizons

15:52and, you know, kind of kind of get out there, really just absorb all of it, you know. Cool. I love that. While you were saying that, I just remembered the name Charlie had the exact same meaning as your name. I'm just curious, do you know of any people in your life named Charlie or Charlie? My downstairs neighbor is named Charlie, so I should go knock on his door and be like, okay, we actually have the same name. Yeah. In a way, sort of. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. So see if you guys have any kind of similar mannerisms or outlook on life. I don't know. Yeah. I used to have a friend Charlie as well, who he was actually from the UK. I met him in South Africa. And yeah, you also seem like quite a bit of a free spirit in that sense. You know, he's since gone back to the UK again. But even the way we met was just quite funny. My friends and I

16:58were, we saw him with a skateboard and we just stopped. We were driving past him and we just stopped and we were like, hey, dude, we just started talking to him and soon enough we became a really good friend. He was just part of the group. So it's cool. Pretty cool. Yeah. One more question for you. Yeah. So when I first started this podcast a year and a half ago, I wanted to know what are like really popular books saying about names? Like, are they saying anything? Like, is there any importance about names? And I googled, what is the best selling book of all time? Happens to be the Bible. And there's actually quite a few examples in the Bible where it talks about somebody's name being changed. And sometimes it varies in the the circumstance, but like, there's a few examples in Genesis where it says, God told Abram to change his name to Abraham and then to change his wife Sarah's name to Sarah. And I'm just curious, like, what is your opinion about why that book would

18:02even mention that? Like, what is the significance behind that, do you think? That is honestly something I don't have a very good answer to. It's a bit. Yeah. I mean, you know, I know Will, for instance, if you think about Polish names or something like that, like, like, Anjay will call something someone Andy, right? To like, yeah, but other than that, I don't know what what the actual significance would be necessarily of in the Bible specifically, right? God, God telling them to change their names. It intrigues me, absolutely. But I don't think I have any real good thoughts on that. It's okay, but that's completely a fine answer. I like to get opinions from every person. So totally fine. Gotcha. Yeah. Well, those were all my questions. Did you have any questions for me?

19:02Yeah. I mean, as soon as you reached out to me, I was very intrigued. And as I mentioned, I noticed a little bit before you reached out to me as well. I saw John from from HR like a boss post about the interview that he did with you on the podcast as well. And I thought it was pretty cool. So I'm just kind of curious, what kind of sparked you to start this podcast? What about names and the meaning of names and kind of reaching out to strangers like you mentioned in the beginning? What about all of that? God, it's actually cool to trigger and really good things going. Yeah. Great question. A lot of people always ask me that, which is totally fine. So it started with a frustration with my own first name because it has been even though it's spelled phonetically and it to me, it looks like it would be easy to pronounce Jay Ma, but it has been mispronounced all the time even to this day. Like if I go to a doctor's appointment, the person

20:04calling me in will mispronounce my name, call me Jayme or whatever. Okay. And so it's just always been such a point of frustration in my life. And I've always just like had this weird like fascination with like looking up the meaning of my name. And I looked it up like when I was little and then I looked it up a couple of years ago. And when I looked it up to two to three years ago, it was just such a light bulb moment for me where because it means my name means the planter, which means to turn over. And so my translation of that ultimately is paradigm shifting. So my, I'm very analytical. I work in, I'm a product owner. So like I've worked in like implementation and HRIS and I love analyzing things and like looking at the big picture of stuff and then like finding a solution to like reorganize it. And it just seems like I was like, there's so much tied to the meaning of

21:06my name in the way that I act like by like my core and my nature by default. And I was like, I wonder if that's the same for everybody. And then I just started looking up the meaning of all the people in my life. And I just thought I was really interesting. And so I was like, I'm going to do a podcast about it. That's awesome. Yeah. Very, very cool. Thank you for sharing that. I was also, I was also wondering. So you did mention, you know, Matthew, the meaning of Matthew. And you mentioned that Charlie also actually has freeman tied to the meaning of Charlie. Were there any names that have really like stood out to you? Or, you know, just one that comes to mind right now that was kind of like fascinating or intriguing or anything like or surprising, you know, just, yeah. Yeah, definitely. So the one that just popped into my mind was my friend Carrie,

22:08C-A-R-E-Y, and Carrie means black or darkness. So we'll have to listen to that episode to understand where we go with that. All right. Yeah. That's definitely very fascinating. Yeah. I can see how, you know, that one maybe ring the bell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because like at first, like, and that's the thing about names and studying the meaning of them on a mythology is that you can't really just look it up with Google and be like, okay, like we're just going to take it at surface level. I like to kind of peel the onion and then like break it down. So like if there's like your your says like Frenchman or freeman. So then I like look up what's the symbolism of those words and then you can just be showing and going and going and like there, I have a lot of theories on the meaning of names too. There's multiple theories and I'm trying to write a book about it right now. So

23:10I'm hoping that in the year or two. Okay. So just, and I think this will be my last question but based on exactly that that you just said, if I maybe throw one of your questions back at you, do you like, do you think it really affects how, you know, people see the world their name? Do you think their name affects how they act and how they see the world, especially since you've been, you know, you said you've got the podcast. You've had the podcast now. I think a year and a half you mentioned. Yeah. I'm kind of curious to hear that. Yeah. So I have interviewed over 115 people now and with not only just interviewing over 100 people, but also looking up the people in my life, looking up the meaning of their names and how they behave and everything. I have come to the conclusion that words have power in my opinion. I believe that God spoke the world into existence,

24:13what it says in the Bible. And I think that if words have power and your name is a word and all words have meanings, whether you know the meaning or not, I do believe it has some sort of significance in your life. And I know there are some people who I've actually interviewed who say that the meaning of your name is prophetic. It's basically like speaking over you and can help you help guide you in what you do in life your purpose. But I will say this. I think that is a very like strong statement to stand on. And I think that people are very complex and people are raised in very unique situations. And with, you know, every single person's parent is unique. And so whether it's nature versus nurture, how you're raised, I think a lot of it is

25:14becoming an adult, maturing, and then having a lot of time to sit with who you are and do self discovery. I think once you've done that, then I think you can kind of understand how the meaning of your name has impacted you. That's my opinion though. So, Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, thank you. I really enjoyed hearing your take on it. And I'm definitely going to be carrying this with me, you know, as I move through life going forward, now this is going to be sitting in the back of my mind. I know it. I'm going to like start paying a little bit of attention and, you know, knowing myself, definitely. Yeah, I would encourage you, like, look up some of your family members names and your coworkers. And just like, I would say, like, be careful because I have a really close friend who's done that. And like, you can't, like, judge people by the meaning of their name, but, yeah, take it with a grain of salt. For sure. Yeah. Awesome. Well, those are great questions. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

26:20All right. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate getting to know you and having this conversation. Yeah, thank you so much for inviting me on. Really appreciate it. It's been really fun. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe or follow the podcast on your favorite platform. Your support helps me continue bringing you meaningful conversations with remarkable guests. Don't forget to tune in next time for more insightful discussions and inspiring stories. Until then, thank you for listening and keep striving to make a positive impact wherever you are. And don't forget to tap into the meaning of your own name to find a deeper sense of confidence in your purpose.