What's in a Name?

A Bitter Comfort -
That is what I always thought my name meant. Nechama means comfort and Miriam is from the root 'mar' which means bitter. So I figured my mother was making a statement.
One day as a young teenager I mentioned my angst over my name to my mother's secretary, Susie F.
"Chas vShalom," she said to me. "Miriam HaNeviah was a great prophetess and righteous woman! You are named after her."
What do our sages tell us about Miriam the Prophetess and sister to both Moshe and Aharon?
They ascribe her name to, yes, mar - the bitterness of slavery. But, they add some interesting expositions as well.
Miriam also shares a root word with the word 'meri' for rebel. Miriam was a rebel. At age 5 she prophesied for the first time when she rebuked her father for separating from her mother. 'You are worse than Pharoah,' she said.
She rebelled against that same Pharoah when he commanded her and her mother to kill the newborn Jewish boys.
She rebelled against the popular pessimistic view on leaving Egypt.
Miriam was a rebel with a cause.
Miriam brought tambourines into a desert. She knew there would be cause to celebrate. She led the women in song and dance...she shaped the feminine mindset of her time.
As it says -(Ex. 15:20) and Miriam the Prophetess took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dances.
The sages tell us that we merited to leave Egypt because of the righteous women - led by Miriam.

Sometimes the bitter comfort is in the memory of teenage angst and the lessons of a righteous woman named Susie F.
May we leave THIS 'Egypt' soon.