I married a girl named Magda. I sort of but not really recommend it. First, if you marry the same girl as I did, she could go to jail as a bigamist, even if she thinks she's being really cool & living the polyandrous life, which is the same thing & just as illegal. Second, Magdalena (which is the long-playing version of Magda) (but not the extended remix, which is so damned long it would fill this entire blog with disco lights & jazz hands) is a name from the Bible, referring to Mary Magdalene, who, according to the Bible Of Wikipedia, was like this:
"Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala is described, both in the canonical New Testament & in the New Testament apocrypha, as one of the most important women in the movement of Jesus. Mary was one of women who accompanied Jesus during his travels, following him to the end. According to all four Gospels in the Christian New Testament, she was the first to witness his resurrection."
That seems cool, doesn't it? But wait! Why wouldn't that be a cool thing for a (Christian) person to want to name his or her offspring? Because Mary Magdalene is widely considered to be a repentant prostitute. That's right. You heard me! My wife's parents named her after a former prostitute. What were they thinking?
I have only met a few Polish folks in my life, & most of them are my wife's family, & I feel like I keep hearing the same names over & over - but like I said, I only know the few that I've met through the wife. Looking at this page of common Polish names, it occurs to me that my wife's parents could just as easily have named her Agnieszka or Brygida or Cecylia or Dorota or Emiliana or Franciszka or Genowefa or Jacinta or Ivona or Justyna or Katarzyna or Lucja or Malgorzata or Olga or Pelagia or Rozalia or Stefania or Czeslawa or Urzula or Waclawa or Zofia rather than have her name be associated with the exact profession (even worse than stripper!) that a parent does not want his or her daughter to adopt - redemption or not!
That's okay, though, because names don't determine one's fate, despite what the Kabalarians think. (They say this, about the name Gary: "This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, & success, as well as cause health weaknesses or accidents to the head, worry & mental tension." Uncanny! I do have health weaknesses of the head!) She became who she was by successfully & utterly ignoring the Bible, & so should you.
It's a lovely name. I've changed my mind. But she still can't marry you as long as she's married to me.
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