My Name

Hello, everyone! My name is Ariella, which is a name of Hebrew origin that literally translates to "Lion God(dess)" or "Lion(ess) of God." When I decided on my Japanese name, I went with Lion God so that I could be called Shishigami (獅子神、ししがみ）. If I went the other way, my name would awkwardly be Kami (god) No ('s) Shishi (lion), and I think it's illegal to have an "of" in the middle of your name. Also, I must admit that I like the way it sounds a bit like Shinigami (Bleach fans, you know what's up).

As an aside, my mom picked the name simply because she liked it -- she's not actually Jewish at all. My dad is technically half-"Jewish" (ancestrally, I don't think you can be religiously half-anything), but his Jewish father gave up his religion and converted to Catholicism for his Italian wife, my grandmother. Thus, my dad is also effectively not Jewish, and neither am I -- only my name is.

皆さん、初めまして、アリエラと申します。

ヘブライ語の名前ですが、アリというのはライオンで、エラというのは神です。日本語の名前を選んだ時に、獅子神（ししがみ）にしました。ヘブライ語なのに、家族はユダヤ人ではありません。ただ、母が好きな名前でした。

アメリカでは、もともとキリスト教やユダヤ教の名前が多いですが、本人の宗教と関係あるわけではありません。日本人が思うより多いかもしれません。たとえば、Mary (Maria, Marianne, Mary-Rose), David (Dave), Michael (Mike), Jacob (Jake), Joseph (Joe) などの名前も聖書からの名前です。ところで、その例は全部私の家族の人々の名前です。

Anyway, I combined my two first names to make my Youtube name: Ariella 獅子神 (Shishigami).

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/washokuhulahoop
(The URL is a long story, but the account name is Ariella Shishigami, I promise.)
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Ariella.Shishigami

When I made my Twitter, interestingly enough, several different permutations of Ariella Shishigami were already taken, so I developed an alternate name, switched and shortened: @ShishiAri. I'm actually quite pleased with it, so thank you to whoever decided to steal all the variations of my full youtube name for their twitter accounts. (That still baffles me... my Hebrew name is incredibly rare, and I completely made up Shishigami, so I assume that's even more rare... Who are these other people?!?)

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ShishiAri
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/shishiari