Augescens is a Latin participle that means “the growing one,” or “the one beginning to grow.” I chose the name “augescens” to express my commitment to ongoing growth and development, commemorate my background as a humanist, and celebrate a new beginning. I pronounce it “aw-ges-kenz,” with a hard “g” and “c” as in “get” and “cat.”
Latin participles–and Latinists!–tend to carry a great deal of information, and augescens is no exception. Augescens is a participial form of the Latin verb augescere (“to grow,” “to increase”), an intransitive verb that carries an inchoative aspect of beginning (“to begin to grow”). Augescens is a present active participle, which indicates that this growth is an ongoing process in progress within our current frame of reference. Used substantively to stand in place of a noun (in this case, me), the participle augescens means “the growing one,” or “the one beginning to grow.”
More poetically, the name “augescens” speaks to me about life as a continual process of beginning and becoming, in which I am always growing and learning. I am the one beginning to grow, and I always will be.
AUGESCENS 