Jessel is Jewish and Jologs.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from someone who's also named Jessel -- only that he's a guy. Apparently, he was curious about his name's origin and as any sane person would do, he googled it. This blog is now the top search result for "jessel" along with a gallery , a toastmaster general (eh?) and sports cars. It's always weird to come across someone with the same name as yourself. And the weird thing is, we're also both 23 this year.

He asked me how I got my name. My father is nicknamed Jess and my mother's name is Elvira. They put it together and voila! A name for their firstborn. A lot of kids in the Philippines get named that way, i.e., mixing and matching parents' names, or any two names. Thus the proliferation of names like Jobet (Jose and Betchay --or whatever other variation), Jomar, Jopay, ad infinitum. Or like Maricon (Maria Consuelo?), or Marites. So very jologs 'no? Hehehe.

But if you want to assume some, ehem, lineage, I also found out that Jessel is Jewish in origin. But it's pronounced differently -- "Hesel" not with a J sound. I also looked up my/our name in Kabalarians.com but they give out meanings and not a complete history.

There you go, two people born in the same year with the same name. I'm guessing that he must also be Asian or some other related ethnicity, not that it matters much to me.

So how did you get your name?