The Name

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 clivia 1 Comments

So...I answer the phone...and I get...Clivia? That's a strange name....Sigh...What does it mean?

Welll... I've learned from a long time ago...I will never see my name on a key chain in Disney, or a T-shirt....or a sticker. As a kid that was torment.....My sister's Renee and Giselle would come home from trips to "merica with all kinda paraphanelia with their names on it....but not me.!

Steups...the mother would have to pay extra to have them write it in. Bad enough...people always felt it was okay to correct it to O-livia...and I would have to go to extreme lengths to explain...no its not a typo..NO.. I know how to SPELL my own blasted name. No...its not CLEEVIA...how hard could it possibly be? Don't you know phonetics? Its Pronounced as its spelt (isn't it?).
Then I come to FIU and the Americans (forgive me) think its sounds like some damn STD...Its not CLAMYDIA....My mother didn't name me after some blasted vaginal infection.....(breathe)

Sigh...

Anywaysss.....My name is clivia....

It is actually a flower...named after the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte Clive who first cultivated and flowered the type specimen in England. It's native to South Africa, and is sometimes called "kaffir (slang for black person in oppressed South Africa - sorry to those easily offendedlily".
For those who don't believe me....check it out your self

http://www.cliviasociety.org/