“Nice airhead damsel.” “A shielded American.” “I’m a deadline chaser.” What do these 3 phrases have in common? They are all anagrams, or phrases made up using all the letters of my first and last name. One recent popular anagram is the name of the movie, October Sky, which is an anagram of Rocket Boys, the title of the book the movie was based on. They anagrammed it to give more credibility and better market appeal to moviegoers. Rearranging the letters of “Clint Eastwood” gives “Old West action,” “Madonna Louise Ciccone” gives “Occasional nude income,” and “William Shakespeare,” “I am a weakish speller.”
Other interesting anagrams include:
Arnold Schwarzenegger He’s Grown Large ‘n’ Crazed
Justin Timberlake I’m a Jerk, But Listen
Jerry Seinfeld Friendly Jeers
Howard Stern Wonder Trash
Woody Allen A Lewd Loony
Jennifer Aniston Fine in Torn Jeans
Paul McCartney Pay Mr. Clean-Cut
George Clooney Cool Energy, Ego
David Letterman Nerd Amid Late TV
Leonard Nimoy I’m Only a Drone
Our birth names are given to us by our parents, often to honor another relative or someone they admire. Nicknames come from family and friends, usually based on a particular incident or dominant personality trait at one point in our lives. Spiritual teachers, most notably in the eastern traditions, give a “spiritual” name to a student to reflect a characteristic they want to encourage in them, so that they may grow into it.
In the 70’s, I spent time with a group and was given the name Karuna devi das which, loosely translated, means “servant of God through compassion.” The name was a reminder that compassion was a trait for me to consciously work on at every opportunity.
Years ago I had a metaphysical teacher who would have us anagram our names to reveal meaningful ideas pertinent to our life. We did this by hand – not by computer – and it was not an easy process. This can be a great spiritual practice, and we learned many things. Some were encouraged to change the spelling of their name, or use a nickname, or stop using a nickname, if undesirable words or phrases appeared. The reasoning behind this was to consciously change the energy of the name. After all, our names are given to us by others and may be imprinted with their energy more so than our own but, as with all areas of life, it is something we can take conscious control over and change to whatever else we prefer.
I use my own name and it’s a family name, although I have had nicknames and former married names in the past that I chose not to keep. We should be mindful to recognize when something has outlived its usefulness. When that happens, it’s up to us to make some changes if we want to move forward.
In addition to those first few examples above, rearranging the letters of Andrea de Michaelis also gives:
Heal in sacred media
Ha! declares in media
Headed as in miracle
She mailed radiance
Has nice, ideal dream
I’m a sacred headline
These confirm to me that I’m fulfilling a little of my destiny by sharing inspirational writing with others.
Rearranging the letters of Andrea de Michaelis Publisher gives “I’m cherishable and super ideal.” Wow, nice affirmation, huh? I like that one!
Rearranging the letters of Horizons Magazine gives “Hi! Amazing, no zeros.” To me that reflects Horizons’ message that no one is a zero, we all have something to give. Actually, a zero stands for infinite potential, anyway. Another anagram is “Amazing shrine zoo” and if you’ve ever visited the office here, well, that’s one way to describe it.
Years ago I read a chapter in Linda Goodman’s Star Signs called Lexigrams and the Word Druids and it had lots of fun information in it. A lexigram if I remember correctly, is a phrase made up using the same letters that appear in the name. An anagram uses all the letters in your name only as many times as they already appear.
A free anagram service can be found at Anagram Genius. Run your own name and those of your friends, and see what phrases apply and don’t apply. If you’d like to try a remedy to a challenging word or phrase (like “ulcer” or “panic”) then try various spellings of your name, until you find one that feels right. You might be inspired to modify your personality to be the best YOU you can be.
Email any interesting results to me at Horizonsmagazine@gmail.com and ~ happy anagramming!
Andrea