I experienced a little tender mercy just now… one that made me tear up and feel close to God.
I was just reading from the book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller about how sheep will often rise early, before dawn, to graze. That got me thinking about how Roxanne means dawn. I googled it again just to double check my memory and one of the options was “Hebrew meaning of Roxanne.” This link confirmed that Roxanne does mean Dawn, and also means “Star of Magnificence”. Then I was curious about the Hebrew meaning of Evelyn so I looked it up and found that her name means Life.
I figured that I would look up my name as well even though I was sure it would just say “meadow on a ledge” like I’ve usually seen on different sites… but with the Hebrew meaning thrown in this time, these were the results…
- Hebrew : Like God
- Hebrew : Little lamb, ewe; one with purity
- English : From the ledge meadow; a variation of Michelle
When I read this, I was moved to tears. (Which I realize may sound silly). “Little lamb, ewe” is perfect (and of course I want to be like God and one with purity as well) . It’s like a dream come true for my name to have anything connected with sheep. It just feels too perfect. It feels like a special gift to have learned this meaning of my name at this particular point in my life.
I had learned recently that Rachel meant ewe lamb and when I learned that I had felt a little jealous and thought that maybe if we ever have another girl I could throw that in as a middle name or something. But now to find out that my name means the same thing is even better. I guess it makes sense that my name would be a variation of Rachel (especially if pronounced Rah-shell). I had always known that Michelle was a variation of my name because I have often been asked if my real name is Michelle (and just called Shelly as a nickname).
Interestingly, I had been thinking about my name meaning the other day and wondering what “meadow on a ledge” even meant. I had never felt very connected to my name before because it didn’t seem to have any significant meaning (and I’m not named after a family member or anything either.)
“From the ledge meadow”, as its defined on this particular website makes more sense than “meadow on a ledge” anyway and seems to have a closer connection with sheep.
It took me 33 years to find out that my name means little lamb. And this discovery came at a time in my life when sheep and lambs are so meaningful to me. In fact, we are headed to the sheep farm (where we got our current sheep) tomorrow morning to pick out our little ewe lambs that we will be bringing home in a couple months.
God knows me and He knows how much this seemingly insignificant little detail (of my names meaning little lamb) means to me.
Knowing that my name means “little lamb” makes “The Lord is my Shepherd” all the more meaningful and real. I am a little lamb. And He is MY shepherd.
I also think it’s pretty neat that my parents named me Shelly, not knowing what it meant or that someday I would love sheep… and when I was born my parents actually had 2 sheep named Maisy and Daisy… they didn’t have these sheep for very long and sold them before we moved across the country when I was 6 weeks old, but I love the little unintentional (at least from my parents) details of us owning sheep and my name meaning little ewe lamb. I didn’t even know about these sheep until my parents happened to tell me recently about them.
This is also cool because my mom told me that they were originally planning to name me Sarah Elizabeth after one of my pioneer ancestors (which would have been cool too) but they decided on Shelly instead.
Just a little update (4/17/22)… I just searched “shelly name meaning” on google and almost every website that comes up in that search says “ewe, female sheep, little lamb, sloped meadow,
some others… “mine own”, “mine” (Hebrew), the sloping field, sloped meadow, meadow’s edge, clearing on a bank, clearing near a ledge, from the ledge meadow.
I really find it very interesting that every other time that I have searched the meaning of my name (which I have done multiple times in the past), I have NEVER seen the references to my name having anything to do with sheep/lambs. I have only seen “meadow on a ledge” or some slight variation of that.
And now, here I am doing a quick search and nearly every website references my name meaning as having to do with sheep/lambs (as well as meadows). God’s timing is perfect. I’m sure I would have thought it was cool at other points in my life to (to know my name meant little ewe lamb), but it wouldn’t have reached me to the extent that it has now. And for that reason, I am grateful to have had the meaning “hidden” from me for all these years so I could make this discovery and open this gift when it actually meant something personal to me.
I wanted to better understand “meadow on a ledge” so I looked up a couple definitions…
MEADOW means pasture or grass land, annually mown for hay; but more particularly, land too moist for cattle to graze on in winter, without spoiling the sward.
LEDGE A ridge; a prominent row; as a ledge of rocks.; A prominent part; a regular part rising or projecting beyond the rest.; A long ridge of rocks near the surface of the sea.
So I think that these photos from our Iceland trip in September 2018 show a couple examples of a meadow on a ledge…
I love that these particular photos capture both sheep and a meadow on a ledge. This picture sums up the meaning of Shelly.
