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I like it

I love Olivia. I've always liked it but it moved onto my favorites list recently, although I probably would only use it as a middle name due to its popularity. I love the nicknames - Ollie, Livvy, Liv, Via. One of my top combinations is Summer Olivia. I think of a pretty, popular teenage girl who is also kind, thoughtful, and talented.

On a branch of my family tree, born between 1900 and 1910, an Olivia was born in the UK. She insisted on being called Olive all her life. She was said to have been lively and cheerful; named her children Muriel after her sister and Rodney. I find Olive unfortunate - a food item doesn't appeal to me as a human name; I find Olivia beautiful, but also likely to shorten to something like Ollie or Livvie or Liv. Olivia probably works best as a mn.

I like it a lot.

I used to like it; when I was little the only Olivias I knew about were Olivia Newton-John (who my daughter heard on the radio not too long ago and laughed at what she called "that little bitty chipmunk voice) and the character Olivia on Sesame Street, who was gorgeous and fun and could sing beautifully.

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But as I got older I began to not like the name so much. It feels slithery and synthetic to me, like obviously fake silk fabric that looks all right from a distance but has out of control static electricity and holds on to every bit of lint that comes near it.
Also I don't like the live sound. Makes me think of liver.

The first person I knew with the name was my really good friends little sister. She was sweet but pushed the boundaries a bit. She was very different than her sister. I thought they both had very unique names at the time but man the last couple of years Olivia has really taken off I think Oliver was maybe a bit before that. Hard to predict what names are going to do that. I know a friend who picked out the name Elsa while pregnant and then Frozen came out. Her husband and her had to decide if they keep with it or switch it because of the movie. They decided to keep it but now are always asked if it was after the movie. I really like Evelyn but could not use it currently because of how popular it is. Found out my brother and his wife also really liked it but they didn't use it for the same reason Too popular.