The "O Word"

First Draft

For the first couple days after I was born I didn't have a name. My older sisters would make up a new name every day, or whenever they decided a new one was prettier. In the end of it all I was named after my mom's aunt.

Olga is one of the more common names where I'm from (Russia) so it was just like everyone elses name. In America on the other hand its a slightly different situation. In school I hated introducing myself or correcting people when they pronounced my name wrong. To this day I hate saying my own name when I meet new people. In elementary school people would call me "Oga", I'm not exactly sure where the "l" went. Some kids would call me "Toga-Oga" and they made a song about it. Just recently at a job interview the boss said "Olga?! That sounds like OGER." But my family has always called me "Oluh" (pronounced like "hola" without so much of the "h") for short.

Around 8th grade my sister, Lyuda (who has heard the "LYUDA?!? LIKE LUDACRIS?!?!?" joke one too many times), began calling me "Oluh" more in public and writing it everywhere and other people would hear her say it and it caught on. Now my friends, family, and sometimes people I barely even know call me Oluh.


My Re-Write

The girl's name Olga is pronounced OL-gah.It it means "blessed, holy: successful". Olga is a really popular name in Russia, but not so much in America.

For the first few days after being born, I was still name-less. My older sisters would make up new names for me every day, depending on what sounded nice to them that particular day. After the long trial of many different names, my parents decided to name me after my mom’s aunt.

Moving From Russia to America when I was two, I got use to people asking about pronunciation for my name constantly. I’ve heard many different ways of pronouncing Olga, or rather mispronouncing. From first grade up until now, I’ve hated having to introduce myself to anyone for this exact reason. Because people like to pronounce my name so differently every time I hear it, I don’t like saying it myself because I feel like I am saying it wrong at this point.

In elementary school my classmates would call me “Oga.” I’m not exactly sure where the letter “l” went, but it wasn’t in my name! Some kids made a song about my name, calling me “Toga-Oga.” Just recently, at a job interview, the boss said “Olga?! That sounds like OGER!” Now, most people call me Oluh, pronounced sort of like “hola,” and that started because my family calls me that and my friends caught on, and now most people I meet get introduced to me using that version of my name.