Morning Glory

Would you like to know where I first heard this name?  The My Little Pony movie. The pony's home is getting drowned in black sticky liquid that makes everyone grumpy on contact, which is a crime perpetrated by an evil woman and her two daughters for some dumb reason I forget. So the remaining ponies along with a dragon and a teenage girl go to the realm of the flutter ponies (ponies with fairy wings) to ask for their queen's assistance. The queen doesn't want to get involved at first, and another flutter pony is trying to convince her to help, and the queen turns to her and says, "It's not our fight, Morning Glory." I'm totally not embarrassed that I watched that so much as a child that I remember it twenty years later.

This is why, when I first thought of the idea of using on a person, I thought, "HAHAHAHAHA!" But then I thought about it...and I thought about it some more...and now I think that maybe it's not quite so ridiculous.

A morning glory is a type of flowering vine. Being a vine, it is a very hardy, fast-growing plant that could grow in any subtropical and temperate habitat. The blossoms bloom in the early morning, hence the name. In China, morning glories are used for medicinal purposes because their seeds can be used as laxatives. A type of morning glory known as water spinach is commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine. Ancient Mesoamerican cultures used the plant to make rubber and hallucinogenic drugs. In the Victorian language of flowers, morning glories symbolize love in vain.

Morning Glory is the name of a well known Neo-Pagan, which would give the name some credibility in our circles. Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart (born Diana Moore) is an eclectic priestess in Shamanism, an author, a poet, and a lecturer. She has dedicated her life to collecting knowledge of Goddess worship, traveling all over the world. She has founded many workshops and events alongside her husband Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (Morning Glory and Oberon is an awesome combination). The two of them practice polyamory, which is basically polygamy without strictly adhering to the patriarchal construct, and they strive to educate others about their way of living. She also has an...interesting hobby of making living unicorns by performing minor surgery on goats. In 2006, she was diagnosed with a broken spine, so she might not be quite so mobile as she used to be.

I don't know where she got the idea of using the name Morning Glory. She may have a close personal connection to the flower. Or maybe she's just a fan of the television show Bewitched, Samantha and Darrin live on 1164 Morning Glory Circle.

I do admit that the name Morning Glory is a bit challenging to wear. Not because it's two words. Two names in one isn't unheard of. Mary Ellen and Jose Maria are traditional first names, for example. So that's neither here nor there. It's just sounds really...faerie. It's not for everyone. The person would have to be very confident. At the same time, the idea of an attorney named Morning Glory kind of fills me with glee.

So despite my earlier prejudice, it can be a very lovely, unique name option. Because who the heck besides me remembers the My Little Pony movie?

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glory_Zell-Ravenheart

Image Credit:
Found via http://ffffound.com/