An Unexpected Name

Lismar Acosta

An Unexpected Name

    Smart and Ocean are the words in Spanish that will help people remember my name. Although my name is not common to hear and it doesn’t have a  particular meaning, I like it because it is pretty and unique. If someone asks me if would change my name, I will say no, but the story behind my name is weird and unexpected.

    Peter, my brother, chose my name. I thought that my parents chose it, but I was wrong. I never expected that my brother was the person who chose my name because he didn’t like the idea of having another sister. Lismar. My family never heard that name before and that made the family curious. After repeating the name Lismar more than ten times, they decided that it would be perfect.

    In Venezuela, which is the country that I come from, there is a tradition that most families create the names of their babies by choosing the names of the siblings or grandparents and putting them together. My parents thought that the name came from my sister, Helimar. They assumed that my brother just deleted the H and E, and added an S in the middle of I and M. When I was seven years old, I asked my mom why they liked my name, and my mom said that it came from my sister Helimar because it is also a beautiful name. Everything was going great until I turned fifteen and my brother told us the real story behind my name. Peter decided to tell everybody the story of my name in my fifteen years party. When my brother was twenty years old, he was obsessed with a woman called Lismar Bravos, who was a porn actress. On a Sunday morning, my mom told my siblings that they should help her choose a name, and my brother without thinking twice said “Lismar is a beautiful name”. Everyone in the family agreed, so I was named after a porn actress. Everyone, especially my parents, was shocked; even the DJ was shocked after listening the story. People laughed about that, but I was not uncomfortable with the situation, instead, I started to laugh too.

    My name is perfect, and I love it, but every time that someone asks me about where my name comes from, I have to say that I was named after my sister but I little bit different. Sometimes, it is funny to remember the moment when my brother just decided to tell me where he picked that name. Brothers should not choose the name of their little sister because maybe the parents will never know the real story behind it.