Serena Williams’ Baby’s Middle Name Stands Out For A Couple Major Reasons

Tennis great Serena Williams and and her fiancé, Alexis Ohanian, are new parents to a baby girl. In an Instagram story posted on Wednesday morning, Williams shared that their daughter's name is Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Obviously, her first name comes from her father, but what does the middle name Olympia mean?

Of course, the name Olympia brings images of the Olympics to mind and considering this baby's mom is an Olympic gold medalist, this seems like a good fit. According to NameBerry.com, the name Olympia has a Greek origin (obviously) and means "Of Mount Olympus," which is home of the Greek gods and goddesses. Olympia, Greece was also where the ancient Olympic Games took place. Name Berry also points out that "this name has an athletic, goddess-like aura," which sounds like the perfect description for Alexis' mommy. It's also the perfect choice if she wants to pursue a career in athletics. The headlines would basically write themselves if she competed in the Olympics in the future, let alone if she ended up winning a medal.

At this point it's unclear if the baby will go by Alexis or if she will addressed by her middle name to avoid the confusion of her father having the same first name. If she does go by Olympia, she would definitely stand out among her peers. According to the site BabyNameScience.com, Olympia is a unique name since only 1 in 239,585 baby girls are given this name. In fact, the peak popularity of the name Olympia was in 1917 when it was at number 790 on the list of the most popular names. It will be interesting to see how much higher the name Olympia ranks in popularity if Williams and Ohanian end up referring to the baby by her middle name.

Aside from the obvious athletic association with the name Olympia, the word Olympia can refer to a number of other things that make it the perfect name for success in many different pursuits. Olympia is a renowned music hall in Paris, where artists including The Beatles, Madonna, Celine Dion, and the Rolling Stones have performed. It is also the name of other performance venues in Liverpool, United Kingdom and Dublin, Ireland.

In 1863, artist Édouard Manet created a famous oil painting named "Olympia," which depicts a servant bringing flowers to a naked woman laying down. The painting caused quite the stir back in the day since the "subject of the painting represented a prostitute," according to Manet.org.

If people do end up referring to Alexis as Olympia, she will be one of the most well-known people around today with that moniker considering who her parents are. Even so, there have been plenty of famous Olympias throughout the years, including the mother of Alexander the Great. There's also actor Olympia Dukakis, who is best known for playing Cher's mother in the movie Moonstruck. She won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for the role. Then there's Olympia Snowe, a United States senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013.

As if being the first daughter of one of the best tennis players of all time and a brilliant business mind isn't enough, Alexis' middle name has the perfect combination of being full of history, but not being overdone. If the baby ends up going by her middle name, she will be able to make a major mark for Olympias of the future.