The Name Game

For most of my life I have been the only Olivia I have known (not counting Olivia Newton-John). But in the past couple of years the name has become more popular and there are a bunch of little 4 year old girls who now share my name. This has created a few problems for me, as I am not used to someone saying “Hey, Olivia!” and having that be directed towards someone else. For instance, last fall I was shoe shopping with my mom when I heard “Olivia, put that down!” I immediately dropped the shoe I was holding and replied “Mom?” I then saw a woman run towards a 3 year old who was placing the heel of a shoe inside of her mouth.

Yesterday, there were two times when I heard my name being called only to find out that the person wasn’t speaking to me. The first time was when Brian, Chad and I went out for lunch. Some frazzled mother-of-three kept reminding Olivia to stop horsing around and eat her food. The other time was last night while watching some public access show (so many new channels on the tv, I don’t know what to do with myself). A holistic doctor was showing how to give sinus massages to children, as a means of getting rid of cold symptoms. His test subject was his 5 year old daughter, Olivia.

So it got me thinking, where do we get our names from?

My full name is Olivia LaVon McCain. I know that my parents contemplated naming me Nola or Abigail, before deciding on Olivia. My mom heard the name Olivia while watching an episode of The Walton Family. The mother on the show was named Olivia Walton, and my mom liked the name, and hence I was named. LaVon is my mom’s middle name and my grandmother’s middle name. I will most likely be passing down the name LaVon to one of my children.

Please share with me how you got your name.