Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean. It is the property of Disney.

My Name

I'd never had a name. A mermaid did not have a name until a human male bestowed one to her.

Mermaids have a social order, and a large part of what determines a mermaid's place in the order is if she can get a man to give her a name, by seducing him and making him believe she loved him.

I was at the bottom of the social order, for I had never gotten a man to name me. The truth was I didn't want one to. Would it not be awful to make a man love you, but only be pretending to love him? I once asked sister Tamara about this, and she laughed at the question. She told me it was not a betrayal since the mermaid never loved in the first place. Mermaids didn't love, she said. I tried to convince myself that was true.

But then I met Philip. He named me. He loved me. And it was after he named me that I truly knew that feeling I had begun having when I was near him was love.

Syrena. How beautiful that named sounded when he said it, but I did not think it suited me. Syrena. Meaning serene. Tranquil. Peaceful. Mermaids were none of these things; we were violent, harsh, and rash. Yet Philip was so certain I was all of these things.

On the way to the pools, on the way to my death, when Philip and I were at the back of the group, where no one could hear us, I asked Philip why he had chosen that name for me.

He gave me a mildly surprised look and paused a moment before answering. "Why do you ask?"

"Philip, you yourself said I was deadly. You believed before that I was a dark creature, a killer. This is true, of all my kind. The name you chose for me does not suit me."

He pulled me even closer to him, and that uncomfortable and wonderful feeling, the one I was sure was love, rose in my chest. "You may be violent and savage, but I believe it is instinct, a will to survive; something you had to be in the world you came from. Humans are the same Syrena. Blackbeard proves that, does he not?"

I stared at him, his words ringing true in my ears.

"If you don't like your name, I could give you a new one." He offered.

"No! It is a lovely name." I replied, shaking my head. "Syrena." I said in a whisper, testing it for myself. Syrena. Syrena. A beautiful name. My beautiful name. I would keep it, I decided, and I would try to keep it well.

We walked on (or rather he carried me on) in silence for a while before I asked, "Philip, was does your name mean?"

He looked away, but I saw a rather sheepish smile twitching at his lips.

"Philip?"

He looked back at me, the sheepish smile completely there now. "It means 'friend of horses'."

I blinked and then smiled, a little smile, but a smile all the same. Names could have such strange meanings.

End