When I was younger I didn’t like my name ‘Mia’ (pronounced, Mee-ah) I don’t know why. It’s short and easy to spell. It’s not many who are named that. It can be short of something else like ‘Maria’ but as a birth name it wasn’t that common. At least when I was born.

Apparently it means ‘mine’ and it’s origins is Italian. And no I’m not named after anyone. It was just a name my mother came up with. I would have been ‘Lotta’ or ‘Charlotta’ but she thought I would get teased or something like that. If I changed my name it would be disrespectful to my parents. I’m grateful for my name. I couldn’t have chosen a better name myself.

In Finnish it’s spelled ‘Miia’ so when I say my name to stranger who write it down, I tell them it’s with one ‘i’ only. I can’t stand people writing my first name wrong. I really don’t like people calling themself ‘Mia’ if that’s not really their birth name. It’s alright if they use as their nickname but as long as they don’t pretend that’s their real name. People who are christen to ‘Mia’ are proud of their name. At least I am and I don’t take the nickname lightly. I won’t punch them in the face though if they do have it as a nickname. It’s different if it’s an artist name or a work name. That’s another story.

The name have been used in TV shows (Frasier) and movie characters. Celebrities have named their kids by that name. Like actress Kate Winslet’s first daughter and Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt daughter. So there’s a lot of reasons to be proud of my name. Thank you mother.