the useless etymology of a name

The Useless Etymology of a Name

A Vignette About my Name and its History

The meaning changes whenever I look it up. One day it means peace, another it means olive branch, and yet the meaning behind the meaning stays the same: peaceful, weak. Throughout my life, the peace forced upon me by my name has led to injury—emotional and physical. The moment I began to be referred to as Olivia, it twisted me. My nature was calm, demure, matching my name, matching my blonde hair, matching my pale skin, and my pale attempts at strength.

It was not always supposed to be a delicate word. The name was stolen from my great grandmother, Lila. Her middle name was a mystery, only known as O. My parents assigned the name Olivia to it, and, in her honor, assigned the name to me. Only after it was set in stone was it revealed that the O I was named after was Olive, not Olivia. A disgusting, sour fruit that very few have a taste for. While the fruit was not fully assigned as my name, it stayed as a meaning able to be chosen out of the many. A bitter Mediterranean fruit to match my more recent attempts at bitter strength, to match my more recent discovery of my Mediterranean heritage.

A common phrase praised by many is one from Shakespeare: what’s in a name? A rose with any other name would still smell as sweet. That concept applies to flowers and fruit and vegetables, inanimate things that are not affected by words assigned to identify them. Names define a person, all Davids, all Justins, all Megans, all people who share a name share a personality. Once in a while there’s a deserter, one who rebels against the mold set upon them by their name, but they are a rare sight.

I hope I’m a rare sight.

This was something I wrote for my English class. We read A House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and since she wrote it in poetic prose, short chapters called vignettes, my teacher had us write two vignettes. I wrote one on my name (this one was already set). The other one was written about a theatre experience... I plant to post that one soon to.

I hope you enjoyed this little blip during my hiatus. I'll still be on it until October 31st, as I said previously. But I do have posts to post after I come back.

See you on October 31st... or the Saturday after that.

OLIVIA ANN