Given the name Ysanne Claire Justin Spevack at birth, Meena was gifted an additional name, Tova, when she was 9 years old. It means 'good' in Hebrew, and was a gift from a rabbi. 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 Genesis 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 legal 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 Genesis, and readies her for her 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 Meena’s projects and, after much reflection and as a step to decolonizing her ethnic identity, Meena reclaimed the Hebrew name she’d been gifted.

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

Tova refers to an intrinsic goodness, like in Genesis, where G.od made the world and saw it was ‘Tov’… that kind of 'good.

Adding to this ‘bat Rahel Leah’ meaning ‘Daughter of Rahel Leah’, in the Hebrew tradition. Another identity, rarely used, but inescapably part of Meena Ysanne’s intersectional identity, as a British-born, US-based Jew.

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’

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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