TINBITE (TIN-BEE-TE)

Tinbite! Wow! What a weird name huh?! Well yah, what do you expect I am from Ethiopia. Don’t get offended if you are an Ethiopian, not all Ethiopians have odd names but I am unique. I think that’s why I like my name so much. It’s so different and it makes me feel like one of a kind. But the only time that I feel like my name is as hideous as a two faced monkey is when, PEOPLE CAN’T SAY IT RIGHT!!! They always say Tin bite (as in bite people.) Gosh people, can’t you repeat what I say! Sorry, over reacting. But I get really annoyed when that happens (which is every time someone “tries” to say my name.) I even wanted to change my name when I was younger. Something like Alice, or Claire might have been fun and easy, but my two favorite names ever were Samantha and Alexandra. One, because they were easy to spell and two, because they were the most common names at the time of my young age. After crying and begging to convince my parents to get my name changed, they weren’t moved. They explained to me how beautiful and individual my name is but I didn’t want to listen. So at the end of all this, my parents decided to give me a nickname. Tina. I loved it, it was perfect, just the name that suits me. It had my first name’s initial and it was easy to spell, AND say!!! Now that we are living everywhere and going to international schools I am known by Tina (by all, not just my friends.) Actually, the real reason my parents named me Tinbite was not because they wanted me to stand out or be original, but because my father’s name is Elias. Elias in Amharic or Christianity is a prophet. And Tinbite is his prophecy, the thing he would say to his people for their best futures. One other interesting thing that goes along with my name, is my brother’s. His name is Nebiyu, and that in Amharic is simply The Prophet. So if you combined my father’s, brother’s, and my name in the right order you will get, The Prophet Elias’s prophecy (Nebiyu Elias Tinbite.