What's in a Name?!?

My name is Olivia Frances Merritt, if you didn't already know.  I love my name, all three of them, because each of them is a piece of me and my family.  Olivia means olive in the Spanish and Italian origins, and peace (of the olive tree/branch) in the Bible.  I LOOOVE olives, and that is well-known in my family; it helps that I grew up in a Spanish-American household.  As for peace--the Bible is irrelevant in my naming but I really like its meaning--I, along with many people, believe in peace and am a peaceful person, and I am all for nonviolence and no war (even if that's naive).  I really like the olive branch/peace meaning, and as a small girl I would think about it, and it helped shape my values of peace and its importance in that, yes, war has to occur sometimes, but peace and discussion should be first and foremost in my daily life and in diplomatic affairs.  My child brain put that into more basic thoughts, but my name helped me reach that conclusion.

Now for my middle name Frances.  If I was given another name at birth, I would choose the name Francesca, because it is a beautiful name in my opinion and I read a series once where an awesome old ladies' name was Fran, and it would be cool to be called that when I got old.  Frances comes from my grandfather Francisco on my mother's side, who was a strong, stubborn (he had to be given the family he married to :) ), and caring person.  I am honored to have my middle name after him, and will always cherish that part that comes from my grandfather.

Merritt is the last name on my dad's side of the family, though my grandmother on that side's maiden name was Sykes, which is the part of the family I associate myself most closely with because of the multiple family reunions I have with them every year.  Merritt as the name does not have as much of a significance for me as does my first and middle name, but I like the way that it has two r's and t's, and is a homophone of merit.  Also, my family and I love a singer whose name is Tift Merritt, and she was raised in Raleigh, so that adds a few cool factor points to my last name.

The "two me's" is my life.  Having Vanessa for a twin is amazing and I would never change the twin relationship I have with her.  However, I am constantly called by her name, which would be fine except people then associate me with her and eliminate the concept of me as an individual.  Because my sister and I are together a lot and people mix us up, it is as if we are the same person for them. Some people don't care to distinguish us as separate people at all, they just talk to me when I know they don't know who I am, but since they act like we are the same person, their comments to me don't change if they knew I was Olivia and not Vanessa.  It is really frustrating to be viewed by so many people in this way.  To people I am very familiar with, Olivia and I are the same thing, but to everyone else, Olivia and Vanessa are the same thing.

Under normal circumstances, Vanessa and I will meet someone for the first time, and the person will ask, "Awww are you two twins?"  And, under normal circumstances, we will say yes (under circumstances of extreme annoyance or sarcastic moods we will say, "No, we just met each other," or "No, we are cousins"). This basically results in an automatic categorization of my sister and I as one being, one set of interests, one type of person, or one bad, one good; one sweet, one mean.  The positive side of this is that this realization affects the relationship as a whole and ensures that our friends are truly awesome in general, along with aware of us as separate people.  The down side is that the part of community that we know and aren't good friends with regard us as one person.  I am me, the smart, pondering yet outgoing person to myself and friends, and I am us, the smart, over-achieving, slightly socially awkward person to society. I choose Olivia and Vanessa.