Names are important. Not just for communication and correspondence between people but also for one’s connection to their own individuality. A name can charm us or vice versa. It is the means by which a person is declared and the word that we will hear more often than any other word in our lives.

Behind my name there is a story. One I would love to share with you. It was my father’s privilege to choose it and for him it was, by no means, a simple matter nor self-evident.

Here goes. On a trip to Rajasthan, India, he met a wise Brahman priest who spoke about the importance of a child’s name, the syllables in it and their phonetic combinations. He spent time with him to understand that each sound is connected to a specific energy. And the sound of a name has a dynamic, different for each person. In the end he realised the syllables we choose to use in a child’s name, which that child will listen to constantly, can have a beneficial effect on him or her.

On the way back from India , on the bus, he had a lot of time, reflected and decided. He knew which syllables should follow me throughout my life. Just three.

Li–A–Mo – Liamo.

Li connects to the abundant light that unites you with the sky. A creates a dynamism and energy that one releases. Mo is the circular energy of light transmission, like the concentric circles the sea makes when a pebble is thrown in it. Li-A-Mo. He then added the Greek “Anna” which of course was not by luck. Anna has two extra alphas.

As Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” This is my father’s ideology, and I am very grateful for this great gift he gave me. But he didn’t stop there. Together with my mother they have given me the freedom of deciding what religion I wanted to choose for myself. And so, at the age of 25, I was baptized a Christian Orthodox in a monastery in Lesvos, keeping both my names, honouring all the meanings given to me and the emotional balance they provide me.