Abigail Olivia Rater

   My full name is Abigail Olivia Rater. A lot of my personality can be told by this name. Any good story has a beginning, middle, and end so here I'll give the full story of my name.

    Abigail. Everybody calls me Abby. I share this title with one of my best friends as well as about five other girls, though I wasn't named after anyone in particular. I also share it with the woman in 1 Samuel 25 who uses good sense to talk David out of getting revenge on her foolish husband. I don't think I'm quite as brave as that Abigail, but I am sensible and I hope my name reminds me to become brave. The name Abigail means father's joy, and I try to bring joy to my whole family. Abigail: It connects to friends, it is sensible and brave, and it spreads joy. I hope I can live up to my name.

    Olivia. the part of my name that's all my own. My parents say that before I was born a lot of relatives disagreed about whom I should be named after. Annoyed, my parents pulled a random name out of the sky: Olivia. When I was little I thought my middle name was from a certain cartoon I liked. I asked my parents about it at least three times even though each time they said no. I sure am glad I was wrong about that! Sometimes my brother and I would make up characters whose first names were our middle names and pretend to be them for fun. Olivia was always adventurous and brave. Olivia: It's all my own even if I have seen it in books and on TV a few times. Sometimes I wish my middle name was my first name.

    Rater. Of course I share my last name with my family and this is really an honor. Dad says the name is German, which I find intriguing even if there isn't a second German thing about us. What matters more to me than where the name came from is what I inherited from it. My Dad's perfectionism that I got can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation, but I've always enjoyed sharing his knack for words. Something I hope to get from my family is their independence. My Mom homeschools my five siblings and I and my Dad is an elder and preacher at our small church which they helped start. Rater: it connects to family, and it gives perfectionism, writing, and (hopefully) independence. This one I really hope to live up to and I'll be sad to give it up if I ever marry.

    So that is my name. I love the parts that are shared and that they still stay unique. My friend Abby and I are as different as night and day, and each of my siblings has gotten something different from Rater. Still, I like that my middle name is relatively all mine. So, the story of my name does tell a lot about me, but it certainly doesn't define me.

Sections: Creative Essays, Family, Friends, Happy, Nonfiction, Real Characters