• I share my name with a popular Disney character, but I wasn't named after the mermaid.
• My parents said they chose it from a list of baby names, unaware of its pop culture ties.
• Ariel is also a popular laundry detergent brand, adding a humorous new twist to my name.

I was born a little more than a year after the world's favorite human-loving sea creature made a splash in movie theaters throughout the US. Yes, my name is Ariel, but I was not named after the Disney character.

My mom frequently says she and my dad "missed the 80s" as they were both completely overwhelmed with their studies, so you can safely assume that they were disconnected from any form of popular culture. The true story of how they picked my name is pretty run-of-the-mill: they saw it in a list of baby names and thought it was pretty and just a little different, and now here I am.

The singing siren of the sea and I don't have much in common; we both have blue eyes, and I love karaoke, so we both sing, in a way. But that's about it. However, that doesn't stop the comparison from coming up regularly when I meet new people.

I get that a lot

Whenever I meet someone new, I'm asked more often than not, "Ariel, like the mermaid?" Externally I smile, while internally rolling my eyes. "Yes, exactly," I kindly reply.

But, if I'm being honest, there are so many distinctions between me and the mermaid. Difference number one, and it's a big one, I don't like swimming. I like going in the water, but actually swimming isn't for me. I'm just thankful that I didn't have to go to a power-hungry sea witch to get my legs and live on land. Luck of the lottery, I suppose.

Difference number two: I'm allergic to fish. Try not to laugh at the irony. Or laugh, it is kind of funny. When I was little, I didn't like fish, but when I was a teenager, I decided to give it another whirl. My mom, who loves sardines, salmon, and seemingly everything that swims, was only too happy to excitedly prepare something with cod or salmon or the like, blissfully unaware of the chaos that would ensue. Soon after my first bite, everything above my neck itched. My eyes, nose, ears, mouth, throat — all of it. My lips and tongue swelled, too. We scheduled an allergen test, and that was that. I officially had an allergy. So unfortunately, good old Flounder is basically a biohazard for me to be around.

If it's not one thing, it's another

My name is associated with more than just a fictional sea creature. One of the moons of Uranus is named Ariel, as is the spirit in Shakespeare's "The Tempest." There's even an archangel named Ariel. However, I'm not going to talk about any of those. That would be too glorious to be associated with such etherealism.

Since moving to France eight years ago, my name has taken on a special new connotation: laundry detergent. Ariel laundry detergent, the international soapy cousin of the likes of Tide and Gain, is a popular brand sold in many countries outside the US.

In case you're wondering if I'm selling myself short, and that it would indeed be more appropriate to associate myself with the otherworldly Ariels above, just know that one day a former partner came home carrying a bottle of Ariel laundry detergent and happily announced, "You were on sale!"

I do actually like my name

That all said, I like my name, and don't believe I belong in the sale section. Like my parents, I think my name is pretty, and just different enough without being too weird, which feels suitable for me.

As my parents opted for names that share an initial with their grandparents for my sister and me, my name is also a wink to my familial past, which preserves a meaningful connection. And if I take an "aerial" view (sorry, couldn't help it), or a step back, being associated with cleanliness and a princess isn't the worst thing that could happen.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's losing streak continued on Wednesday.

Hours after Republicans in Wisconsin lost a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin where Musk spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money, shares of his flagship electric car company fell upon news that it had badly missed Wall Street estimates for the number of vehicles it had delivered in the first quarter of 2025.

As reported by Market Watch, Tesla revealed that "it delivered more than 336,000 vehicles during the first quarter, down from 387,000 deliveries a year ago."

To put this number into context, Market Watch notes that it "was well below the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of 404,000 vehicles" and it "was also lower than the 'whisper' number, or what Wall Street was quietly expecting, with even the most bullish analyst projecting a number in the 360,000 range."

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Although Tesla blamed the disappointing deliveries on what Market Watch describes as "the changeover to refreshed Model Y production lines" that "led to several weeks of lost production," it's also a reality that the company has been the target of a concerted boycott campaign led by progressive groups to protest Musk's role as the head of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

Sales of Tesla in Europe have fallen off a cliff in recent months, as car buyers on that continent have revolted against Musk's support for far-right political parties such as Germany's Alternative für Deutschland.