Why we chose these names
Choosing a child's name is one of the few decisions they carry their whole life. Why Vithória, Olímphio and Máximo.
Choosing a child's name is one of the first real decisions we make for them — and one of the few they carry their whole life.
Vithória was the oldest of all. I knew, long before becoming a father, that if I had a daughter she'd be called that. I even told Shana early in our dating, almost like someone revealing a secret plan — and she liked it right away. Years later, it became a person's name.
I don't think a name defines the person. But I believe it weighs: it's the first word the world associates with someone, and the first the person learns as their own. That's why we made slightly unusual choices for our three — Vithória, Olímphio and Máximo. Not for the difference itself, but because each name carried a meaning we wanted close: the idea of winning, the height of Olympus, the pursuit of the most.
They're wishes, at bottom. They guarantee nothing — the ones who'll write the story are them. But I like to think that, every time they hear their own name, they also hear a bit of what we dreamed for them on the day we chose.
Related writing
- Família3 min read
The art that shares my home
I live with Shana's canvases every day. What I learned about abstract art — and about my own mind — by living with it.
- Família2 min read
Looking together in the same direction
Shana and I, together since we were 16. On a long relationship as a choice you remake — and looking at the same horizon.
- Família2 min read
What fatherhood taught me to see
My way of seeing women changed in stages. What life together — and above all fatherhood — taught me to see.