52 Ancestors Week 22: A Name with Meaning

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 22:

The theme for Week 22 is “A Name With Meaning.” We genealogists work a lot with names. But sometimes, we run across a name that has special significance, either because of it being a namesake or because of what the name means. Who in your family history has a name with a special meaning?

Someone open "The Big Book of Baby Names"!

    People of Earth, I'd like to take this time to tell you all that certain names will never, ever be cool. Certain names may sound good in your head but in the end that child of yours may find themselves getting beaten up on the playground by someone brandishing a name from "Game of Thrones" or something. Be sure to think long and hard about a name while you flip through "The Big Book of Baby Names".  That child's name may define their whole future unless of course they decide to change it somewhere down the line. This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Wikitreer.

    With that out of the way, I have come across some interesting names in my family tree. I've gotten epic sounding names like Zebulon Drew.  I may have talked about him once or twice. I can't help it! The man's name sounds like it should be the name of a front man for a Scandinavian metal band. I see the name and I can hear the hot licks in my head. Other names are just as good and sometimes you'll find someone who shares the name of an older sibling who unfortunately died young. In Italian families, it happens very often like in the case of my grandmother, Olympia Carrabs.

    Grandma Ollie was born in Haverhill, Mass in 1920 to Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione. She was the youngest of six children who frankly were all like Sophie from "The Golden Girls". Growing up with the little old Italian ladies around was basically a laugh a minute. You visit them and you'd be smiling the whole time. I guarantee it.

    You might be thinking that "Olympia" sounds like an odd choice for a name in an Italian family and you might be right. Her sisters were named Vincenza, Josephine, Eleanor and Louise. Olympia, I've discovered, is clearly of Greek origin and references Mount Olympus, the home of the Olympian Gods like Zeus. As a given name it it evokes imagery of divinity, grandeur and excellence.

    It kind of makes sense that an Italian would use a Greek name. I mean....the Romans DID adopt the mythology.

       Like any Greek myth there is a twist to the story. Imagine my surprise when I found out that grandma Ollie was not the first Olympia. She had an older sister named Olimpia who was born in Gesualdo in the July of 1912 and passed away in January 1913. In Italy and in other places around world, it's sometimes customary to name a child after grandparents and if the child died young they would use the name over again. I've seen the same name used three or four times once. It was not pretty and in the end you really feel for the family trying to have a child with a certain name. It's so sad. But that's just how life was in southern Italy at the time. Tragedy happens and the family tries to move on as best they can.

The first Olimpia

    How I discovered her existence is pretty interesting. During one of the "Cousins Day" celebrations, my dad and his cousins were talking about their grandparents and someone asked "Did any of you ever hear about Nonnie and Nonna talk about another kid?" There were a few nods here and there. Someone thought it was a boy. Someone thought it was a girl. There was a pretty lively discussion. I just sat there and listened. One does not interrupt an Italian family and their stories.

    .I did think about it for a few days and before I could ask Mary, the distant cousin who  had been researching the town Gesualdo for years, she sent me an email with this birth record and with it was a death record.

She asked me a question "Did you know Giuseppe and Clementina had another daughter?"

    I was taken aback by the email because I had just learned about the possible missing child from my dad's cousins. I replied to Mary and told her I was just talking with the cousins about this and told her the story. I went to Antenati to see if I could learn more about the girl who died and sadly all I could find were the documents Mary found for me.

Giuseppe and Clementina

           It makes sense that Giuseppe and Clementina rarely talked about the child they lost. In those days, no one ever really talked about a child who died young unless a kid were to ask why they had a certain name. I do find it interesting that virtually all of the grandkids heard Nonnie and Nonna talk about Olimpia without mentioning her name.

    That begs the question. Did my grandmother know she was named after an older sister who died just before her parents and Jennie left for America? Possibly. I can't say and I'm not about to put words in someone's mouth!

     Not long after the first Olimpia passed away Giuseppe, Clementina and Jennie left for America and once they were in Haverhill they had three more daughters before naming the last one after their second child.

    While I don't know for sure why Giuseppe and Clementina reused the name "Olympia" once they were settled in America, I can make an educated guess. Using the name "Olympia" one more time could mean that they wanted to honor their lost child's memory. Despite being thousands of miles from where the first Olimpia was born, they probably wanted to show that they thought of the daughter they lost and how she would always be with them no matter where they are in the world. Romantic notion, I know. But it's the one I'm going with!

    Names can have multiple meanings for many people. Growing up I always thought that Grandma Ollie's name was cool and a reference to the Greek gods. And to some extent that's true. Now when I look at it I can't help but think of how my great-grandparents wanted to bring someone into the world with a pretty interesting name. I do still wonder if grandma Ollie ever knew about her older sister. I like to think that she did and maybe that's why she was so nice and caring to everyone. You never know!

See ya next time!