Why FitYaf?

After sharing my website with my friends and fellow fitness enthusiasts, one of the most common responses I got was, "Jillian, I love your website, but why FitYaf?"

It all started about 30 years ago...  When I was born, as part of the Jewish tradition, my parents gave me a Hebrew name at a Jewish naming ceremony.  The name they chose was Shayndel:

which means beautiful.  Appropriate, right?  Years later, when I began Hebrew school I was told by my teacher that the name Shayndel was Yiddish and not Hebrew.  She informed me that the Hebrew equivalent of Shayndel was Yaffa:

which also means beautiful, but in Hebrew, not Yiddish.  Over the next 5, or so, years, slowly my name morphed back into Shayndel, and that was the name I used at my Bat Mitzvah on November 11, 1995.

Thirteen years later, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel (photos below) on a birthright trip with Oranim [shout out to my fellow birthright-ers on bus 819!!].  Again, I was asked, "What is your Hebrew name?" and again I was told that it was Yaffa, not Shayndel.  My friend Kerry was also on this trip with me, and she decided that Yaffa was the perfect "nickname" for me, so when we returned home, she continued to called me Yaffa.  The nickname was so popular, it caught on, and now, my husband calls me Yaffa at least 20 times a day - I think he even says it in his sleep.  He has even given a nickname to the nickname and sometimes calls me Yaf.

So, about a year ago, when I was considering changing my Twitter handle, I tossed around a few ideas and took a few votes from my friends, and @FitYaf was born (follow me).

Naturally, when I dreamed up this fitness website, FitYaf.com was the best choice, so that's how you wound up here, reading this blog.

Do you have any great stories about how you got your nickname?