My full name is Sahara Estinto. My first name is, of course, like the desert which is what I tell people when they ask me what my name is. I’m not sure why my parents picked my first name other than the fact that it was “pretty”. My last name however has a bit more of a story to it. So my dad was born and raised in Naples, Italy, and moved to the United States when he was 14. Because he lived in Italy his last name is Italian. Estinto is the word for extinct in Italian and there is a whole story about why his last name is Estinto and I loved to hear it as a kid.

I used to be embarrassed about my name when I was younger because people used to mess it up a lot. I have been called Sarah, Sasha, Savannah, and many more. As much as this used to bother me it doesn’t anymore. I really like my name and as long as I correct people when they mess up then I don’t mind people having trouble with it. I kind of like that people have trouble with it because it means I am unique and my name is unique to me.