ASSIGNMENT: Write an essay explaining the origin of your name and how you feel about it. My full name is Saidah Lauren Belo-Osagie. My name is definitely different from the average Joe’s, but it’s special because I know that even though it’s hard to pronounce, people will say, “Hey, you’re the girl with the hard to remember name.” And that’s okay. That’s because I know that my name means something special: Joy. My parents named me Saidah because they believed that I would bring joy and pleasure to the family, especially because right when I was born, a dove came to my window. That was definitely a good sign. The origin of my name comes from the Muslims. I’m not Muslim, and neither is my immediate family. But for some reason, my paternal grandpa was Muslim, for there were many Muslims in Nigeria. They insisted my name be Muslim even though that’s not what my mother had in mind. She wanted to name me Jasmine, a nice, pretty name. Even though I would like the name Jasmine, it was a common name. I need a somewhat peculiar name for a somewhat peculiar girl like me. People usually ask me what I feel about my name because it is so different, but I personally like it. At first I thought it was uncanny and bizarre, and I’d often ask my mom why it wasn’t something that everyone knew. But, of course, my name defines who I am, and I shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Several times, people would ask me what my name was, and when I said it was Saidah, they thought it was a pretty name. That made me feel much less insecure about my name. SAIDAH BELO-OSAGIE Seventh Grade One of the most intriguing subjects in the world is names. What do our names mean? Couldn’t we have had a different name? My first name, Miranda, was given to me in honor of a character from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In this play, my namesake is the daughter of a magician who was once a duke but who was betrayed by his brother and abandoned on an island inhabited by spirits. I used to hate my name, but now I am quite proud of it, and I would never change it in my life. Miranda means “admirable, wonderful.” It was originally a name in Shakespeare’s time; he created it for the sole purpose of using it in his play. It was derived from the Latin “Mirandus,” which means the same thing. My middle name, Elizabeth, was derived from the Greek “Elisabeth,” meaning “my God is an oath.” The name appears in the New Testament, where Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist. The name is very popular in England currently. I do not know why it was chosen to be my middle name, but I am quite happy with it as my middle name. It also allows me to have the initials M.E.H., which is now one of my nicknames amongst my friends. My last name is Hawkins, which I can only assume means that I have some far-off ancestor who was a hawker (someone who hunted with hawks). Though Hawkins is a very common last name, I would never change my last name in my life. I am glad that I am a member of this family, even though some of my cousins can be less than pleasant at times. I have answered my own questions concerning my name now, at least well enough for myself and hopefully well enough for the reader, whoever he or she may be. Perhaps it was insufficient for them, perhaps not. My parents had no difficulty at all naming my sister; my mother had determined long before that her first daughter, if she had one, would be named in honor of a great aunt of hers. With me, things got a tiny bit more difficult. My mother was determined to name me after a Shakespeare character and at first suggested that I be named Rosalind. Now, of course, anyone who knows me will no doubt have a very hard time imagining me with such a strange name. However, luckily for me, my father stepped in and insisted that Miranda was a much better name. It didn’t take much to convince my mother. After all, it was still the name of a Shakespeare character from a play she enjoyed reading. Though it wasn’t the name of her favorite Shakespearean heroine (who, as the reader may have guessed, was Rosalind from As You Like It), she consented to it, and, thus, I escaped having a completely strange name. I can only hope the reader enjoyed this brief look at my name. No doubt there are many facts I might have included to make it more interesting, but I have written here all I know. MIRANDA HAWKINS Seventh Grade