What does "Castella" mean?
I often get asked a couple of questions about myself...what does Castella mean? and why did you choose to go by the name Castella? Well, I’m going to answer those questions right here. Should be an easy, short answer, but no, not really. I’m a blogger!! Haha!! Here’s my answer...
According to my Mom, my name was Tracy Renee up until my Aunt Lillie Mae called long distance and told her that she should name the baby after her grandmothers. I found out recently that my mother reluctantly named me after my grandmothers. (See, she had this “T” thing going on with her baby names.... Tyrone, Terrance, Timothy, Tracy… I guess I’d be a little salty too, come to think of it!)... My grandmothers were named Kathleen and Rebecca. So my name is Cathy Rebecca. I’m glad she chose to spell it with a “C”... Cute huh? She wanted someone to call me Cee Cee, my husband does 😊 Nothing like knowing the reason behind the name you were given. I feel honored to be named after my grandmothers.
Every summer we’d go to Alabama to visit my grandmother Kathleen (maternal grandmother) who all of us grandchildren affectionately simply called “Mother”... But when people would come by to visit, they would call her “Ms. Castella” Interesting... I had to do a little research to find out why? (I guess I’m answering a question within a question, right? LOL). So I went back to the source, my Mom, who had no idea, so we asked my Aunt Lillie Mae. She told us that my grandmothers adopted family started calling her Castella ... no true reason given... I’ll never know why she preferred Castella over Kathleen... but I can say that perhaps it made her feel special, different, vibrant, alive, respected... (my music makes me feel this way)...
When I set out on my musical project, it was simply that, just a project, something fun and creative I was doing. After my first song was complete and Darryl sent me the .wav file, he said “save this, you’ll use this when it’s ready for public consumption.” Public consumption? You think this is good enough for public consumption? I thought... So we continued the project and completed all of my songs, this was in April 2019. Upon mixing the final song in May 2019, Darryl then asked, what do you plan to do with this? Share with friends or with the world? Good question! I figured, we put so much time and effort into this, I might as well GO FOR IT! That meant developing a brand for this thing we had birthed... As a public executive, I kind of wanted to separate Cathy Thompson from the music I was putting out for professional reasons. Side note, I always tease my daughter about TMZ looking for me! Certainly, using my real name, Cathy Thompson, all of my fans would have been able to find me at work! Boy was I dreaming big... and Cathy Thompson is about as square as you can get and that name fits “me” well.... so I tossed around a few thoughts... Cat, Cathy.... and finally Castella. Castella had a nice ring to it, it seemed different, strong, sexy, mysterious, a little misunderstood... so I asked a good friend and advisor, so what do you think about “Castella” as my stage name? He said, YES! I like it! So, there it was, I chose Castella because it was different, strong, sexy, mysterious and a little misunderstood, just like my Grandmother. Ultimately, I chose it because I thought of her, I thought of how proud she’d be of me, how absolutely sweet and strong she was...it is an honor to carry the name she adored into the forefront because Cathy IS Castella!
I had a chance to dig a little into the definitions of Castella ... looked up baby names... no one is naming their baby “Castella” at least not yet, haha! But I found something close, Castalia, which means pure, which guess what, Cathy means pure...go figure... I absolutely love connections like this!!
Then there’s the whole grandiose Castle angle... you see, castles are castellated with battlements... the battlements are high at the top of the castle, I’d say kind of looking out among things from an elevated place, protecting things ... go figure...
So, I could make up this meaning, “pure elevated one, protector of all things good” which is quite cool because this whole experience has been cleansing and I feel on top of my world right now... and I have to protect it! Bottomline, Castella, Ms. Castella was my grandmother’s name and I was named after her...simple, right? So there you have it! She’d be tickled, I can actually hear her sweet voice and laughter right now...I love you “Mother” 💜
One last thing...Castella is a Japanese sponge cake...how can I fit that into my story? So, my grandmother liked making cakes and ... I’m kidding! Thanks for reading!! 💜
For fun visit www.nameecho.com and type in Castella, it actually gives a lot of insight into me…then search your own name. Tell me what you find.