Mostly known simply ‘Meena’, she’s an artist who makes art with everything.

And so of course, she’s always created with her name.

Given the name Ysanne Claire Justine Spevack at birth, Meena was gifted an additional name, Tovah, when she was 9, meaning 'good' in Hebrew.

She added it to the other names, in the middle.

Five names, basically a sentence. It was a lot for a little girl.

When she was 17, Genesis P-Orridge named her Mee.

One word, no surname.

Finally, simplicity. Or was it complexity?

Mee is like a mirror, a reflection - it's the concept of I-and-I - we are all one. A beautiful and loving gift from Gen, heralding a new chapter in her creative life as a young artist, and turbo-charging her process of individuation.

This name stayed for many a moon until she moved to Los Angeles in 2004.

Now Mee was in a very different time and place, and when she started to make music with William (Billy) Corgan, he let her know something that many people had expressed before - namely, that the name Mee was pretty challenging.

Knowing she needed to do something, and not having a new name up her sleeve, she fell back to using her birth name, Ysanne Spevack - it wasn't a comfortable fit any more, but it was ready-made, and quick to revert to.

Fast forward to 2018. William and Ysanne revisited their conversation about a new name while she was healing from breast cancer.

Never had a more timely conversation been had, at the junction of the crossroads from one side to the next, from here to there. Healing and readying herself for a new chapter. 

A new name for a new life.

And so Meena Ysanne was created, a name that encompasses the gifts from her parents, and from Gen, and from William, ready for an ongoing peaceful journey towards the heavens, with love, and God's grace. 

And so, in June 2019, Meena Ysanne became her legal US name.

However, the story continues…

Meena is a first name, and Ysanne is a middle name, and the intention of these two names was to create space for a new third name to appear - a new surname - to come from her future love.

But then, an unexpected twist in the road came from one of her creative projects, a new book that’s currently in the process of being written, and after much reflection, Meena reclaimed the Hebrew name she’d been gifted as one of her pen names.

Tovah does indeed mean ‘good’, but the type of good it refers to is not a conditional goodness, not a behavioral goodness, but quite the opposite.

Tovah refers to intrinsic goodness. Adding to this ‘bat Rahel Leah’ meaning ‘Daughter of Rahel Leah’, in the Hebrew tradition, as this is her mother’s name. Another identity, rarely used, but inescapably part of Meena Ysanne’s intersectional identity.

But again, now she’s Here, her name Meena - created post-cancer - is Mina. Local, simple, and a reflection of both Minna from Janna (manna from the Heavens) or Minah which is a lighthouse, or a port. And more, below.

It’s a journey, and the journey of any life is underway until soil drops onto a box, so to speak, and a body is covered over with earth.

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Meena (also Mina or Minnie)

In Hebrew it means ‘Peaceful’, ‘Quiet,’ ‘Restful’ or 'Serene'

In the Quran, it means ‘Heaven’ or ‘Starling’

In German it means ‘Love'

In Persian it means ‘Azure', ‘Glass Bead', or ‘Enamel'

In Arabic it means ‘Port’ or ‘Lighthouse’

In Arabic it also means ‘Gift from God’ with an alternative spelling

In Levantine Arabic it means ‘One of Us' with an alternative spelling

In Sanskrit it means ‘Fish’

In Dutch it means ‘Protector’

In Cornish it means 'Hill'

In Japanese, it means ‘Everyone’

In Ethiopian Amharic, it means ‘Vision’ and ‘Knowledge’

In Biblical Aramaic, a mina was the unit of currency and / or weight (like the word ‘pound’ can be either.

It's a shortened form of Wilhelmina, meaning ‘helm of will’ or 'protection of the will.’

Meenakshi is an avatar of the Hindu goddess Parvati, Shiva's consort and Vishnu's sister. Meenakshi means 'beautiful fish-shaped eyes' from 'meena' for fish, and 'akshi' for eyes. She is the goddess of all who are born different - a fierce warrior with three breasts who dressed like a boy, and then married a god.

Ysanne

In medieval Celtic French / Cornish / Welsh it means 'Grace'

Hence... Meena Ysanne.

Because what's in a name?

The essence of a person.

their intentions and inspirations + their gods and gifts + their villages and visions + their ethnicity and immutable traits + their character

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