Why Did You Choose That Name?

I think my mom namd me Bonnie so everyone could ask where Clyde was or to tell me I lie over the ocean......LOL.... as for my daughter Kira.. she was named after Major Kira from Star Trek DS9

I named my son "Christopher" after Christopher Robin. I didn't give him the middle name "Robin" because I didn't want to be too obvious. I put a Winnie the Pooh in his crib before he was born and it stayed with him for 15 years. I begged for it back when the girls came into his life for fear that he would give it away to some sweet young thing. I still have it. It is almost 30 years old and I am afraid to wash it for fear it will disintegrate. His youngest is Elizabeth. We call her Lizzie.

I love that... like Bonnie Blue Butler from Gone With The Wind!

My German Shepard is also Kira ;-) I love that name. Did you know it means Shepard in Gealic(sp?) we didn't know that when we named her!

Linda, If I ever had a son that is what I wanted to name him. My husband wouldn't have it though.. his family tradition is to name sons after dead relatives.

And of course I like ELizabeth ;-)

when i was in college,there were 2 little boys steven and matthew who were the best of friends. they were adorable little boys so i wanted to name my son Matthew Steven. My husband had a bird at the time because his brother's name is steven,he said that it would be confusing. i named him Matthew John,the John for my dad and grandfather. My present husband named my daughter Rebecca because he liked the name and Lynn for my middle name. My husband is named after his uncle who was a priest and i am not sure how i got my name.(i wanted to name my daughter Elizabeth,but my sister stole the name for my favorite niece so it is ok)

Did the granddaughter take your husband's advice? Or is Harper cursing her mother to this day?

Yours is wonderful. My birth name was Mandi Esterday.. so I know how you feel ;-)
ps. my husband's name is william.

Hi Mandi, I don't have any real exciting stories for my boys, Mark Joseph (after his Dad) Ryan Matthew (it was going to be Ryan whether a boy or a girl) and Timothy Patrick, a nice Irish name. My only story is that when I returned home from the hospital with Tim, my mother-in-law called from Hawaii to say "ooohhhhh" when she heard it was a 3rd boy and not a girl, and then asked "what kind of name is that? I hope they don't call him T.P."

Sheryl, great name's! I should have mentioned in my article that my middle name is also Victoria and my great grandmother's middle name was Victoria and her mother's name was Victoria.. so along with my mom being Victoria and now Beth's middle name, we got a family thing going for over a hundred years.

laurie LOL! I love that you had the same name for a boy or girl.
We tend to forget about what the initials will come out to don't we?

I sat and thought about it... "Victoria" has been in our family for 150 years that I know of,,,

My son was born in 1976, shortly after Elton John's song "Daniel" came out. He is my Daniel, and to this day, when I hear the song, my breathing pauses, and I smile....

nancy, that is so sweet,,,did he appreciate it though? Or was he a typical boy? "OH Mom!"

My youngest son's name is Wade, born in '93 - the year of the floods in the midwest. Truthfully I had the name picked out long before the floods hit....

funny how that happens!
Thanks Colleen!

It is so interesting how we pick names. I of course am Carol, a really popular name in the 40's after Carol Lombard. I can't tell you how many Carol friends I have, and most of us are musicians. But as a teacher in the past 20 years, there are absolutely no Carols in the school population. Funny how you pick out names, thinking you don't know anyone who has used "this name" and then they start school and every kid in school has the name! My youngest is named Monica as I was pregnant with her when I played the lead in the opera "The Medium" by Menotti. One of the songs was "Monica, Monica, Dance the Waltz" Now how come there are so many Monicas around! We call her "Mo"

carol, you must have really loved that play! ;-) I like her nickname!

first daughter amanda joy for the meaning 'loveable delight'
second daughter jaimie alexandra in honor of my granny(scottish great grandmother) who told me such great stories of her grandfather James Alexander.
i was given the honor by amanda and my soninlaw in getting to choose one of the names of each of my grandchildren.
amanda teased me as long as it was not a hippie name and i teased her back with i choose bright sun in sky, which actually became skylar breanne (they kept both of my choices for her)
my grandson i choose dylan for my favorite poet-dylan thomas and fav musician bob dylan. i ended up shortening it to dyl pickle (from rug rats) i love to hear him say "nana i am NOT a pickle".

Ann, that is too cute for words!! I really like skylar...

i'm not sure about this, it's been too long since i've seen the movie. and, i 'm not positive it was the 70's. but, there was a movie "a patch of blue" with sidney poitier. the (white) girl in the movie was blind & fell in love with sidney poitier's character. (not your average everyday happening then.) can't remember what her character name was.
when i was pregnant, my husband & i settled on clinton david for our son. just before i had an emergency c-section (which i didn't know was coming) i said "we can't name him that! if i have the baby, don't have that put on the birth certificate!" he came up with jacob, which i liked. but, i always accuse him of choosing it for former nc basketball player jake scott. i picked out the middle name, ryan.
my sisters have nice, different names, suzanne & monica. i always accused my mum of having a creative lapse when she named me. as a "debbie" i was "one among many" for sure. late in life i change the spelling the debbe, so i could write my name without a qualifier to go with it. didn't realize my first name & last initial spelled "debbel," but it has been great fun!

My big boy is Dale cause I was very impressed with Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks, still probably the most unforgettable character in a television show ever. It would have worked for a girl too cause I also love the work of Dale Spender, an Australian feminist academic. With Gene it was a family name, sort of. My Mum WOULD have married Gene Kelly if she could have, hehe. When he was on the way and we knew he had Down Syndrome it was suggested that a child with a chromosomal abnormality perhaps shouldn't be called Gene, hmmm. LOL but I figured what the heck, which is always the right thing to do.
This is fun, thanks Mandi.

Once again, the comments rival the tale!

When we were choosing names for our first, my wife and I used a computer program I wrote to calculate personality traits using name numerology. But we also tried to make names that would work either way, boy or girl, because I at least wanted to give them a chance to avoid gender prejudices sight unseen. Came up with Adrienne Danielle for our first. Feminine spelling but either way sound and lots of short forms. And since my name is Dan and her mother's Donna she was 'A'nother 'D'. In fact we have always called her Adie. By the way, we selected for tenacity and independence via the numerology and her mother has often commented that it worked too well!

I was to be named Seamus, a good Irish name. My mother had tried with my siste, Siobhan, but that was rejected by my father. Maybe she had hoped after a few years he would go for it, but no. We were to all have simple names (not a bad thing, I like Jim) . . . but I was close to being a Seamus.

My Dad was enamored with Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and my Mom loved the name -- thus I became "Maria."

My name - Gisela? (It's pronounced Geese-ella by the way - kinda like a poultry fairy tale...)

My father is American. He married my mother, and took her away from her German family. THEY HATED HIM. In an effort to win over my Aunt, who actually spoke English - Dad promised to name the first girl after her.

The in-laws learned to tolerate him after I was born - but I don't think it was worth it. Especially when my husband calls me, imitating the yodelers from the Ricola commercials.....

My parents named my older sister and me with the same first initial. Paula and Pamela thinking that was cute.... but then when child number three came and they thought about naming her Patricia they realized all the times they got tongue tied trying to call the older two and named my baby sister MONICA. Which to this day I think is the prettiest name of all of us.

For me I liked Tyler and my husband liked Matthew so we had Matthew Tyler, we were going to call him Tyler but he just looked like a Matthew, Then with Jordan I was about to make the same mistake my parents did and for 3/4 of the pregnancy we said she would be MEGAN... Then we watched GI JANE and her name was Jordan Oneal so we changed the name to Jordan Alexandra (after Uncle Alex)... Then With Olivia... we had a very hard time agreeing. I wanted Jada (still stuck on having two kids with the same first initial) and Dan wanted Vivian. Finally we both agreed on Olivia Danielle after her daddy Daniel.

OH If any of us girls were to have been born a boy we would have been Milton Bernard! God has his reasons why we were girls EH?

Tradition is big in my family. I am William R. III, coming after three Eziekiels, three Jonathans and three Nathaniels going back to 1623. I wanted Wm IV but my wife wouldn't hear of it. My son was baby boy H___ for three weeks. We finally compromised on Edward Keefer. Edward after the only male of my fathers generation that I actually liked and had any kind of relationship with and Keefer, my mother's maiden name. We call him Teddy, it fits.

First daughter is Katherine (katie) May. Ancestral first and mother-in-aws maiden. Middle child is Hannah Rose, ancestral first and the middle just sounded nice. Also, we had recently moved to Texas and Hannah Rose has that Southern, double first name feel to it.

My oldest son is named after myself and my father making him the third, my 3 year old Logan Charles his first name is after Wolverine (X-men) and his middle name, though I would like to say is after Charles Xavier (X-men) is for my grandfather and my wifes father (got a twofor on that one), my 1 year old Eva Michelle is really not named after anyone, her first name we just liked, and her middle name followed, while it is the name of a very close friend, it had nothing to do with the decision. It just worked with Eva.

every one of these stories is wonderful! Thank you all for sharing them with me!

william as I said above, is also my husband's name.. so I like it alot ;-)

Deborah, I looked up "A Patch of Blue".. the girl in that movie was selina... thanks anyway!

My Dad wanted Jan, my mum Christian. They agreed on giving me both names. This causes a lot of confusion. I prefer Jan, my grandmas call me Christian and whenever someone calls me Jan Christian I feel alarmed. My maths teacher used to call me that. It is not very useful in Germany to have two names as first names. They are usually connected by a hyphen like in Karl-Heinz. But I have two proper names, not just one. You can imagine how angry I get when I received report cards with my name written in a wrong way. At least I should now how to write my name when I filled in those bloody applications...

I like Jan, because it's cool. Now I´ve met several other guys named Jan, and this troubled me first. But they are not as cool as I am :-) And please do not mention that Jan is used for girls in Britain, too. I´d enough troubles with name. JC is a good compromise then.

Our daughter is the seventh Carolyn in a row, mother to daughter, in my wife's family. Her eldest daughter is the eighth. It goes back to before the Civil War, in Mississippi. Our son's first name (Charles) is for my father and me, and his middle name (William) is from my wife's father's name. My first name is for my father and my middle name is from my mother's father. His name was Bob Lee Vaught; I guess you can imagine who he was named after. It only made sense; his father's nickname was "Reb" and he was born in 1858 in Alabama.

This is for Deborah, the movie that Mandi was named after was a British one that I happened to watch before I was even pregnant. I so loved the name and the rest is history. I wanted to name her Mandi Danuta(after her Baba) but my husband didn't want to so I picked Victoria after her Great Grandmother(but told my husband it was after me)

My Dad named me after the mystery film noir thrller, "Laura". I love my name and the song from the film and have it played on piano every year.for me.

thanks everyone, this was more fun than I thought!
Mom, you never told me it was british! I have not been able to find any info about the movie... you sure you don't know the name??

I was name June Ellen. My parents knew someone named June Ellen. They didn't like the person, but they liked the name. So I'm named after someone my parents didn't like!

Here's another tale of names from my husband. He thought it would be interesting to name all the kids with the same first letter in their names, thus, Richard, Randy, Robert, Russell, Rodney, and Ramsey. However now he finds it too confusing and gets mixed up calling their names. I say it's just the getting old that does it.

June, thats funny yet not.. ;-) thanks!

Carol, WOW!! thats a lot of boys,,, I suppose randy could be a girl...am I wrong?

I love that part about screaming the name 100 times.
My mom must have decided to try it before she named me and I think that not only could she handle screaming it 100 times, I think she must've loved it because even now, after 15 years, she still screams it 100 times a week--on average =)

Emily, are you sure you are only 15? You have a talent for writing comments and articles,,, you go girl!!!

My parents named me after Serena on the show Bewitched. When I was in the 10th grade I remember a friend talking about her cousin Anna and I feel in love with that name. That day I said if I ever had a girl I would name her that and I did. Daniel, my son's name, just had a nice ring to it.

Serina, My grandmothe's middle name was anna and her mother's first name was anna... thanks for sharing!

I was named Kathryn, (the Scottish way) by my father. No middle name. Just before i was born, my mother wanted to add a middle name, Ann, if I were a girl. I have no official middle name, but Elizabeth is my confrmation name. I like to have three names, so I kept my maiden name, Esplin, and hyphenated it with my husband's name, Oleski,

as you saw in my posting and comments, Elizabeth and Anna are special to me... so nice to hear they are to you too ;-)
thanks Kathryn!

Funny and neat stories!

My kids were named after hurricanes (my then husband is a meteorologist). At first, we were going to name our son after my dad and his dad, but David Otha was out of the question, and using his dad's middle name, David Ray, sounded like a murderer on death row. Just say, "Death row inmate David Ray Edwards was executed . . ." It just rolls off the tongue. So we figured David was a hurricane name and we had lived through Hurricane Andrew, so why not David Andrew?

Then I commented one day we had a hurricane name if we had a boy, but not if we had a girl. Roger immediately came up with "Donna Camille." I said, "Oh, no, I actually like it!"

So we ended up with a boy named David Andrew, and two years later had a girl named Donna Camille. And trust me, they live up to all four hurricane monikers!

Could be worse. My sister, Maija (pronounced Maya) was named after a friend of my parents from Latvia, and then when I came along they had to come up with something just as exotic, so they spelled my name with a "j." Mom thought she had made it up herself, until two weeks after I was named, when she watched a game show and saw a contestant on it named Tanja. Oh, well. So much for originality!

Tanja, I think you win the prize for orginality.. I have never heard of anyone naming their kids for hurricanes.. now that is unique!

thanks!

I was named after Gary Cooper. In fact a lot of us were. If you know a Gary - he is probably around my age. I ran into a web site once where you put in a name and it created a graph of popularity over several decades. It was kind of fun to see the naming trends.

my husbands middle name is gary.. he is almost 48.. I will ask him about that!

Do you remember the website.. that sounds neat.

Tanja, You are a brave woman to name your kids that way! How fun is that?
My kids are : Amanda Lynn (A cascade of love)
Rebecca Anne (Sweetness)
Ian Trevor (after Ian Flemming, Ian Anderson, Ian Drury and Trevor after a dear friend)
My daughters named my youngest Sara Anne. Sara was Amanda's best friend at the time and Rebecca named her baby sis's middle name after her own.

Okay... now you guys are in for it...lol I could write abook... I will try to make it short and sweet however;;;

First Child... born July 12,1990.. Caleb Kacey Marchal

I just really liked the name Caleb.. my grandmother told me however that when she was young she knew a "simple" (not too bright) boy named Caleb.. I however went with my heart.. and I still love the name. His middle name is spelled odd.. I wanted to name him after my grandfather who died when i was three... His name was Kester Charles...(yuck) everyone called him K.C... so i fixed this a little.

Second child: December 10,1991, Caysha Alexandria Marchal
I wanted something different than anyone else... I was watching a movie about Geisha girls. i knew i had to do the "C" thing to tie her in with her brother... so I went with the sounds but not the spelling.. She loves her name. The Alexandria comes from Cleopatra's home land. Plus, I figured if she hated Caysha later in life, she could be Alexandria, Andi, Andria, or Alex... so she had ways out of the mess.

Third Child: Cody Lane Marchal, July 16,1993: Cody.. just cause I liked it... Lane however came from my father... he died 15 days before i got pregnant with cody... My fathers name was Lannie Monroe Kiser... I could not do that to my child so I dropped a i and a n and named him Lane.

4th kid... Elijah Alexander Weaver-Marchal..june 5,2000.. okay... I went to the confederate cemetary.. You see when I was little my grandmother would spend at least two days a week there taking care of her two sons and her husbands head stones. I love it there, it is one of the oldest cemetary's in wv... so anyways, the confederate soldiers who died during the war... and lie beside each other for ever...There is a Elijah and next to him is a Alexander.. so i named my poor baby after two dead young men who died fighting.

5th kid... Stormy Day Marchal... march 23, 2001... The day she was born was in the month of the most floods in wv. The hospital is on the river and i watched as peoples belongings floated by. It was raining... I thought about naming her River at first... but her father and I agreed, it was such a stormy day. Everytime they say It is gonna be a stormy day on the weather channel she thinks she is famous.

6th kid... Raven Addaline Weaver....september 18,2002... Okay.. my favorite author.. i am a Poe fanatic... I love the Raven, I have always loved the Raven. My children have all humored me by listening to me read it over and over again.. so i had to have a Raven... plus i have black hair.. i thought my kid would get it.. but she is a light brown kid and although every one of my other children got my brown eyes she ended up with her dad's green eyes... (why me) the addaline was her dads idea, sorta, he wanted adaleen... i thought it sounded like sizzleen.. the old bacon stuff so i fixed it my way.

7th child... Isaiah Torin Weaver....August 19,2003 I wanted to name him Job (another dead person in the oldest part of the cemetary) Plus a book of the bible. My husband said that because of the spelling he would be made fun of. I also liked the idea of the book of the bible thing... so, anyways, he was born early... he almost died.. i was heartbroken.. I liked Isaiah and it matched Elijah so well... so that is where he came from. The Torin is Celtic.. and means either "warrior or chief." He needed strength so I thought this would help him to overcome his challenge with life. He is my little angel... He however thinks his name is Za Za cause that is what his brothers and sisters call him.. and Raven thinks she is RaRa...lol

If I were to ever have another (dont worry, I got fixed) I would name him or her Justice... cause I love that name.

I too was born in 1971 Mandi, that is how I got Lisa... You know the elvis thing...lol And middle name Dawn... because my mother finds beauty in the dawn.. I however am a night person...lol

I love this article... so much to talk about.. Have a great day guys...

Lisa, wow. 7 kids?? You were really fertile! LOL! Thanks for sharing all those wonderful names with us.. my daughter's half sister on her father's side is named Raven.. any-hoo thanks!

I was also named after Laura in the movie (referred to by Laura M. above), which I have yet to watch.

My first son, Sam, was so named because I knew it could work as Samuel or Samantha. My husband actually came up with it as we were driving home one day. He said, "How about Sam? Have you ever met a Sam you didn't like? There's Sam Malone, Sam Perkins (then a member of the Seattle Supersonics basketball team), Samantha Stevens..."

We had a potbelly pig named Cooper, after agent Dale Cooper (I saw that someone named her son Dale after him).

When I was young, we got a dog that a neighbor and I named Claudia because she looked like a cloud when she ran. Oh, and her companion, our cat Angel Face, named for obvious reasons when you take into account we were all of 8 or 9 years old at the time. Angel's name was actually longer, but I can't remember all the middle names. I think one was "McFry" because she was inadvertently taken to McDonald's once (she liked to snooze in the Country Sedan station wagon).

Naming my son was not that difficult since the tradition for the last 250 years in my family has been to name the first son Oliver. No one except my grandfather has actua;lly used the name on a regular basis over the last ioo years. I reserve the use of it for creditors and telemarketers. Once they call me Oliver, I know ithey are not people I want to talk to.
My son goes by Reid, a Middle name my wife inserted in place of the traditional Henry. She got no argument from me.
There was no real guiding family tradition in naming our daughter. My wife's name is Ann, which she has always found very unexciting, especially since she wasn't even given a final "e". (She is very jealous of those "e' Annes) She had a classmate in college who was named Tamar and thought that sounded interesting. I almost blew it, though, and our daughter almost became "Jamar" when the people at the hospital had trouble reading my handwriting. Maybe I was nervous.

Hi! I loved reading all these name stories - very interesting and entertaining. I was named Donna - my mom had it picked out even before she conceived because she loved the name - and I was to be David if I was a boy, after my grandfather who had unfortunately passed away before I was born. She couldn't come up with a middle name and my dad didn't know one either...but Mom's nurse in the hospital was from the South, and she said, How about Lee? So that's my name - Donna Lee, and I really like it, because so many Donna's that I have met have Marie for a middle. I like Lee a lot better. My sister was born 4 years later, and my mom wanted to name her for my other grandfather who died while she was pregnant. (Jewish tradition is to name a child after a deceased loved one)...My grandpa's name was Isadore...so she wanted to name my sister Ilene, but everyone hated it (no offense to any Ilene's out there)....eventually she settled on Sandra and again couldn't come up with a middle name. This time she just left it, Sandra, which I really like. I did give my sister an unofficial middle name, Elise. It has two E's in it, and E is a powerful letter if you're into that kind of thing, and without it she has no E's in her name. Also I think it sounds pretty. I have never been blessed with children, but if I had given birth, my son would be Darren (after my beloved favorite singer, Bobby Darin) and my daughter would be Jacqueline (after Jackie Kennedy). I don't like the names of the day - the old fashioned ones like Emma and Jacob, or the new fancy ones like Amber. I like NORMAL names. (not too normal though - not like John or Mary) but names like Robert and David, Meredith and April, those are other favorites of mine for boys and girls respectively. My mom was almost named Ida, saved at the llth hour by my aunt who changed it to Helen!! My dad legally changed his first name from Morris (ugh) to Louis (his middle name). Smart move, Dad!! Nice chatting with you all - Donnaleah

Wow, someone who is a Donna who could have been a David. Same as my kids. Cool!

My son is named Oz. I had this idea that I was going to name him Oscar Zoroaster, which was the real name of the wizard of Oz in the books, and my husband said "Oh, for heaven's sake, just name him Oz." It's that nice space between simple and unusual. He was the first child in his daycare to be able to write his name.

My dad found my sister Alison's and my name in a baby book. Think he was very interested in researching?

My daughter Andi got her name because all the Andis her dad and I had known were cute and popular.

Aspen's name came into discussion because her dad had been wanting an Aspencade motorcycle when she came along. I insisted on Marie for a middle name!

great names everyone! I had no idea this would be so popular!

Mandi I'm going to have to write a longer piece in this vein - in fact perhaps all of us who participated here would like to do the same.

The short story is that I name in a family heritage kind of way that has - I discovered only later - been happening in the family for literally at least thirteen generations.

For example I am Susan Kathryn. My Aunt was Kathryn; with one cousin Kathryn (Kay) and another Kathleen. One of my daughters is also Kathleen and the Kathryns and Kathleens go back into when the family was still in Ireland.

My mother was Ellen. She was first generation post-Ireland and called herself Helen which she thought to be more sophisticated and less "child of an imigrant."

On the other hand my dad's mother Ellen from an old New England family with no need to worry about such thing was called Nell and Nellie most of her life.

I used the name Ellen for my daughter Kerry's middle name and noticed something very interesting. In her case, as may be so in others, the middle name DID matter since her full name was used multiple times each day during her rather colorful childhood.

Good thing I picked a name I liked.

susan, isn't it funny how things work out?

I love the sound of "Kerry Ellen" it flows!
thanks for taking the time!

My kid will be named Finnegan

Heather Marie, Rebecca Ann, Heidi Jane. Take the first letter put them together and you get H.R.H. Just short for Her Royal Highness, for that is how they were all treated growing up. Peace!

Finnegan.. I like it... will a girl be named Hazel? ;-)

Ken, did you intend it that way? cool.

Incredible stories, and a wonderful topic. I was named after Brianne Leary - a character on the tv show CHIPS in the 70's (she was on animal planet a few years ago with Petsburgh, USA or something like that). My parents changed the spelling to Breanne as they were afraid people would call me Brian. There aren't many Breanne's in my generation, but there are many kids today that have it. My middle name - Elizabeth - is a family name. My kids - should I ever have any - would be Braden Charles for a boy - Braden is a very nice Irish name - and is one of my favorite clients at a the vet I used to work at, Charles after my dad, or Camille Elysabethe for a girl because I like Camelia flowers, and saw this spelling of Elysabethe that I adored - her nickname would be Mila - pronounced mee-lah, because I don't want cami as a nickname. That's my story. Once more, awesome topic.

I was named after Robert Wagner's character on Hart to Hart, Jonathan Hart. My mom was pregnant with me, and decided on naming me Robert, after my father. He was not too thrilled with that idea, due largley to the fact that he hated his name, so he talked her out of it. She was wathcing T.V. one evening, and heard Stephanie Powers running screaming Jonathan on the show, and fell in love with the name. My middle name, Edward, is a family tradition, in which the eldest son of the eldest male recieves the middle name Edward. Great topic, very interesting.

Well, I hate having the same name as the vice presidents wife, "Lynn Cheney". You oughta see the looks on the faces of the voting officials when I show them my DL. My name growing up was Lynn Berg, hated it, cause I was called Linberger Cheese. What were my parents thinking? My best friends name was "Sandy Brook"......BAD too.

I was unnamed for nearly 2 months after I was born. It was supposed to be Katherine after my maternal grandmother, but it just did'nt seem to suit me. My mother was taking italian lessons at the time, and came across the name Luisa, which apparently just seemed like it was always my name. So I became Luisa Katherine Ann Morgan, as every woman in our family has Ann as a second middle name, for so long now that nobody actually knows why. It was years before Iearned to like it, but now I fully appreciate how it took a long time to arrive at something that suits me so well. If I ever have a baby girl of my own, I would want to call her Rebecca, after the very good friend I have known since I was four years old. A son I would like to call Joseph or James, after my grandfathers, and because I like boys names that begin with J (my younger brother is Jack). My partner would like to call his son Sullivan, which is his middle name and his mothers maiden name. Unfortunately, I think most people would think 'big blue hairy monster'! I love this post, its really so interesting how names come about! In our family, everyone has at least 2 names, then you can choose the one you wish to be called. For instance, my auntie Terry's name is Mary, my mother, known as auntie Maureen, is Bridget! It's kind of comforting, I think, to know that hardly ever is anyone named without a great deal of thought and consideration. We carry these things about with us always, its good to know we take care of them.

Wow a ton of responses! :) I was named after a pretty girl my mom knew in high school named Dawn. Nothing big lol.

My first daughter -we had Devon Michael picked out for a name, but no girl names. About 2 days before we had her, we decided on Yvonne Michelle. She really likes her name because Yvonne means archer in french and there is never any other Yvonne in her class. And, dang it, it's pronounced EEVON, not yahvon, and definately not whyvonee!

My second daughter we couldn't think of a name forever, and then we decided on Cassandra, cause then we could name her Cassie (which we don't) and my husband made up the middle name Amorie, so she's Cassandra Amorie, but I am constantly forgetting what her middle name is or how to spell it lol.

My third is Veronica Simone. We knew it would be another girl, so didn't even think of boy names. And we argued constantly about the name. He wanted Raven Simone, but I've always thought Raven was a slutty name (Sorry All of you who named your kids Raven! (Especially you Jennifer lol)) and I wouldn't have it. I do like the name Swan though, I don't think it's a bad name at all, though maybe a better nickname? But maybe that's because I love the book Swan Song.

Yvonne was going to be called evie as a nickname, but we nixed that idea quick. Cassandra calls her Von, so maybe that's her nickname lol. Cassandra was going to be Cassie but NOT sandra, and veronica was going to be Ronnie or Ronica but, well... no. They just don't fit lol.

I'm done rambling on and on and on and on.

Oh my husband hates his name. My husband's mom hates his name, and we don't call him by his name. But, and I tell him this always, if it wasn't for his name, we wouldn't have met. Also, if it wasn't for his name, he wouldn't probably get jobs so easily. It's memorable. Whenever anyone sees it, they ask how to pronounce it.

It was given to him by his "Grandfather" which was not his grandfather by relation, just by acts of love, and no matter how she fought (his mom) his dad and grandfather harangued her until she acquiesced. She wanted to call him Jonathon. (After her first son, who died as an infant).

If you google his name, you will only find things about him. However there are about 2 or 3 variations in the world, as his Grandfather dubbed other children with names similar to his.

His name is Diosdadiz. And I love it! lol

Pronounced Deeohsdahdeez

We are the proud parents of a son named Macon. hopefully one day he will like his name, too. I never thought i was going to be lucky enough to ever even HAVE a baby, much less worry about what to name it...3 years of trying, a miscarriage,--so the least of my concern was the name. So when i finially got pregnant we really didnt think about a name.. never even crossed my mind what color to paint the tiny room ...i just wanted a healthy little babe in that room. I turned 35 while i was pregnant and had the amnio test-everyone wanted to know if it was a boy or girl. am i suppose to decide on a name before it's born? PLUS know the sex? i made my dr. hide the folder during each visit so we wouldnt be tempted to peak; rather my husband wouldn't be tempted. I would never have peaked. my lilittle package was like christmas morning..predawn ... too dark to really see anything but you knew great things were about to appear. and having a baby, not knowing whether it was a boy or girl..that tasted like Christmas morning to me...besides, it had to be one or the other, right? it wasn't gonna be a crocodile...and i am not efficient or organized enough to pick out names for a boy AND a girl..-just in case it is a boy.. or in case it is a girl ....i wish i could be that ...adullt-like. i am sorry, dear children. i have raised you on the edge. i wish i could have seen the blue and the pink. lined up. side by side. and just chosen a name. just in case. well, anyway....back to the name thing Macon was born. i realized that what we must have been waiting for was to see what name he looked like...Do you know what i mean? if i meet someone named Diane, for instance, and in my head they donot look like My Concept of What a Diane Looks Like, ,...then forget it...i have to ask them to wear a name tag on their shirt every time i see them. so i thought when I saw him, and of course realized, it is a him . the name would just POP out ..but it really didn't. Siince i ended up 3 days in labor...then an emergency C-section.....everyone was relieved that we had the extra 4 days =not for me to recover....but for us to decide on a name. By the end of the last day..well..when the nurses kept telling me...:he can't be called "baby boy" after you leave the hospital.. (but i really loved that name... it was so innocent).... Finally several things came together-besides getting kicked out of the hospital. .Two people in books i love are named Macon- now what are chances of that? in the book "accidental tourist"-- i love Macon for so very many reasons but mostly because his character reminds me so much of my brother, who,used to conserve hot water by stomping around on his diirty socks and underwear while taking a shower, thus saving electricity and laundry detergent. i find no way to describe the Macon character in Toni Morrison's novel, but the book Song of Solomon defines what is sacred, magicial, and unspeakable sadness and grief. i don't even pretend to understand it, except that i learned from it but i can't describe it. on a lighter note..... there is the lovely town of Macon, Georgia- home of Otis Redding and since i grew up in south carolina I wanted to keep some southernness in our family. HOWEVER, since my husband grew up in Montana and we were "transplants" we figured we wouldnot be on Long Island very long..it was only to be a short stop on our long journey through life. VERY few people on Long Island have EVER heard of MACON, Georgia HOWEVER every woman on my floor who birthed a girl baby must have named her Meagan, Megan, Meaghan in 1991! – so this is what happens: when you put together my southern accent PLUS Megans and Meagans swarming around, this is how it went:
Parents: "Hello, we want you to meet Macon- he was just born yesterday:"
People: "Oh, Barbie and Ken told us you had a boy!...
Parents: Yes, we did. and we still do. His name is Macon. You must be getting him confused with Barbie and Ken's daughtersy-Megan. Meghannn and Meegan???

My son's name is Logan William. I knew I was going to have William as a middle name, after my favorite grandfather, who died when I was around 13 yrs old. But I could't figure out a first name for the life of me!! So finally I had half given up, his first name would be William and I would call him Billy, which I really didn't mind, but still.... Logan just literally came to me one day. I stood up from the couch and the words Logan William came out of my mouth! I instanty fell in love, the names sound so strong together! Strong and confident, just like my boy. :)

I named my cat "White Kittie" because she is a kittie and she is white. She seems to like her name and she likes me too. I realize this is very profound but I can't help it. It also goes against the grain of societial pronouncements since kittie is spelled kittie and not kitty. I have a wife and two sons who have five children who are my grandchildren. I had nothing to do with naming any of them even though I might have liked to have thought of a name for each of them. I have written millions of words but none like these.

thanks everyone!
don you are funny ;-)

J.C.R ,My sister's name is Jan,she has the feminine form of John for my Dad.My husband has two first names Elliott Robert and to this day he still is called Robert by different people. sometimes he answers and other times(depending on who it is ) he answers.Good luck,hopefully some day you like your name enough to go by Jan although J.C is pretty easy to spell.LOL

Great article again Mandi. My name is Noelle, named after my grandfather Leon (spelled backwards it's Noel, add the "le" for a girly flair). My daughter's name is Sofia Catherine (Sofia b/c it means wisdom, the "f" for the Italian spelling, and Catherine b/c I love British queens [what can i say, at least I'm honest]). We were going to name her Honore (pronounced Honor-ay) after the street in Chicago when my husband and I met, but decided it was too unusual -- maybe with the next girl. I still love that name.
~Noelle

Ah nice! My son was named BOBO because he uttered that sound instead of baba for his bottle so I just called him that and even now at age 19 I call him that but his friends do not tease him because they know better lol!

My daugher is a 4th of july baby and now at age 17 she is my "Ching Ching" her name is Ashley lynn and my mom speaking very little english did not quite understand the sounds and as much as I repeated it, she could not pronounce it correctly so the term "Ching Ching" at first it was cha-a- ling then it was ch-a-ding then it was chinglin then mom hit me and got frustrated and called her that nickname so to her she calls her "Ching Ching"

I love hearing all your stories! thanks everyone!

When my mom was pregnant with me she and my dad went thru many name books. They had decided that if I were to be a boy I was to be named Keith or Kevin. And if I was a girl (and thankfully I am!!) they were going to name me either Kelly Anne or Kerri Anne or Kristy Anne...something with a "K" name for the first name and "Anne" as my middle name. Well, they didn't name me any of those names and no one can even remember how it was changed to ErinAnne. And no, in this case "Anne" is not my middle name. So, I have quite a mouthful of a name: ErinAnne Elizabeth McCain. I like my name now but as a child, I didn't. I guess things change as we grow older :)

I was almost William Sanford the 4th! Sanity prevailed and my parents chose a name that couldn't easily be nicknamed. I was given William for my middle name, though. My wife and I chose Karsten for our son because it means "chosen by God" and we didn't want Christian which could be shortened to Chris. I wanted him to have the same middle initial, so he is Karsten Wesley.

I didn't want to name my daughters after anyone. It sounds ridiculous now - but I named each of them names I had heard, but had never known anyone with the name. Both names became very popular after I used them, and I wished I had just made up something. My daughters are Jessica Luz and Briana Shea.

Well, here's one for the books - I'm Joyce Joy. My sister is Joy Rose. My first husband is Italian, so my daughter is Serina Rosalia and my son is Nunzio Rosario. Lots of Joy and Roses throughout!

My mother is Joyce and that is also my middle name.

thanks everyone! roses and joy,, can't beat that!

Sandy,

No kidding? In my whole life I have met/heard about only abot 15 people with either the given or the middle name Joyce! What a koinkidink! I knew we were kindred spirits!

Great writing, Mandi! This sort of short, direct tale is something you do exceptionally well.

As a chiild, I remember my neighbor naming her daughter that was born during the Christmas season, Joy Belle!

We did NOT name my daughter Laura despite 5 generations of them in the family. When you said "Laura" at family gatherings, 10 people turned around.

We also did NOT name my son Richard (my name.) I was named after my grandfather and his nickname was Dick. When we moved in with my grandparents, he was known as "Big Dick" (I am NOT making this up) and by inference I was...well, I just didn't want to hang that on my son.

I love reading name stories! My oldest son is William, for my grandfather, the most wonderful man I've ever known. My second son was SUPPOSED to be Anthony, for my husband. I decided suddenly half way through the pregnancy I didn't want to give a second son his father's name, that it might upset the first son, and also that I just didn't like the name Anthony enough. I bet you can guess how well that went over!! We fought and fought over his name, and were joking around one day and said William would want us to name him Mister Rogers, after his favorite show. It hit us both at the same time---Mister Roger's first name was Fred, and we both realized we loved the name Frederick! So Frederick it was, although he always goes by Freddy. We had FOUR names picked out for my daughter---Lydia (my choice from childhood), Laurel (one of my best friend's names and a name I love), Augusta (the name of the town in Italy my husband's family is from and the capitol of Maine, where I am from) and Jane (a family name---my aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother). Somehow it came down to what her hair color would be---Augusta for black hair, Lydia for dark brown, Laurel for light brown and Jane for blond. Well, we could see instantly she was a Jane---very light blond hair (somehow those Sicilian genes of my husband's don't show up in the hair!)---and so Jane it is!

I also love reading about origins of names. I had a baby name book that I wore out! When I was pregnant with my daughter, Heather, I combed through the book throughly. Loved the name Sarah, but did not want the name pronouned as Sera not Sarah(fussy, aren't I) so I settled on Heather, which in 1976 was not that common. How was I to know? Ended up Heather Catherine Rose(Catherine Rose after me) and in the hospital after I gave birth, the woman in the room next to me named her daughter Heather Rose too! Ain't that a coininky dink? Nurses really had to look at the wrist bands before taking the baby out of the nursery!

My son(10 years later) is named Gary-Andrew Bruce. Named after his father's cousin after much discussion agreed if we could use Andrew as part of his first name(his patron saint). Middle name is my brother who has no children of his own.

Me? I was named after my grandmother who passed away years before I was born. Catherine Rose was her maiden name. My dad always got a kick out of saying my name-Catherine Rose sat on a tack-Catherine Rose!

Get it?

lovely names everyone!

Big Dick though??? geez..