My name, Blaire, means plain, field, or battlefield. When I did my initial search, I stopped reading after the first word, in shock and horror. What kind of life would a little Black girl named “Plain” live? Does that mean my parents expected me to be Plain? Boring? It is surprising that with my advanced reading comprehension scores, I didn’t even consider that Plain was referring to a field. 

Did it refer to my appearance? As a girl, that was a huge offence. As I spiralled, I scrambled mentally for a different narrative. Suddenly, having the names of both of my parents wasn’t cute. My name didn’t sound so pretty anymore. And even worse, I knew that we would be discussing it in my friend group the next day, so I had to find a different meaning somehow.