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Meaning of my name
I was told my name means "shining rocks". When I looked it up online it says it means "daughter". So I guess there are many different "meanings". I've had this name for 48 years and also have problems with people mispronouncing it. "Ten-a-ya" is how my name is pronounced.
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The same "name" can mean different things in different languages. The meaning daughter comes from Sanskrit, and the original word is tanaYA. The root tan meant to expand or diffuse (as in light), and tanaYa meant to propagate (a lineage or a family). tanaYA thus meant a daughter.The meaning shining rocks may be a confusion. There is a Lake Tenaya in Yosemite valley whose prior name was Pie-we-ak, which apparently meant Lake of the shining rocks probably in the language of the Miwuks. The English name Tenaya of the lake was taken from the name of the chief of the native Americans they met in that region, and the name may have just meant father in the Paiute language.
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