How did you get your name or your childrens name?

Since the dog and cat sections had this I thought we could share how our parents came up with our names and/or how you came up with your childrens (skin children:p) names.

My mom says she just liked the name Cynthia. And just thought Ann sounded good with it. She didn't realize, until after I was born, that her mother-in-law's middle name was also Ann. So she let her think I was named after her. :) And that's the same grandma that could never pronounce my name correctly. I was called Sydney for 28 years.

I wish I'd been able to pick my own name, because I absolutely HATE both my first and middle name. I don't remember the story about how I became Eleanor, but my middle name is after some dead aunt (I think) of my mother's. It's a very unusual name that I've never heard anywhere, and I can Google it for it's origin, and it never comes up there either. And no - I'm not revealing it, so don't ask. :p


My oldest son was named after his father, so he is a Jr. My advice to anyone thinking of naming a child after his father would be - DON'T DO IT!!!! I never imagined some of the nightmarish issues that arose because they had the same name. If he had been a girl, he would have been Lisa Jonette.

My 2nd is named Steven Charles. Steven just because I like the name, and Charles after both grandfathers that were named Charles. If he had been a girl, he would have been Holly Christine.

My mom has told me that my grandmother's husband suggested Elise and it just stuck. That's how it's spelled on my birth certificate, but we changed it to Elyse when I was in grade school because people kept calling me Elsie. I'd like to change it back, but it's not easy to do now that I have things like a driver's license, a nursing license and a mortgage! But Elise is a lot more popular than it was 45 years ago when I got it. ;)

My middle name is Kay after my great grandmother Katherine. My oldest niece's middle name is Kay and my youngest niece is Katherine Frances after her great-great grandmothers.

My dad and my brother are both Raymond. My brother and sister-in-law purposely decided not to make my nephew the third Raymond -- but there was another guy with the same name in one of his college classes so he now goes by Ray too. He likes it! (and I think my dad likes that my nephew goes by Ray)

My sister and my second youngest niece share the middle name Claire after my grandmother.

And Pomtzu, my sister-in-law's mother is Eleanor and i love that name!

My elder sibling's names start with I and J, so my name starts with a K. And they were thinking of Kristine, but then my Dad remembered his Aunt Christine who was a very prejudiced person, so they picked another "K" name. And my middle name, which is much more unusual, is after my grandmother, who didn't like her own name, or her middle name. As both my elder siblings have more unusual names, very Swedish ones, I once asked them why they picked Karen, which turned out to be so darned common. They said, "Hey, we didn't know everyone else was going to name their kid Karen, too!" Had I been a boy, I would have been a junior, so I think Dad was relieved I was a girl!

I really don't know how my parents came up with my first name Tracey. I do know that they were thinking of naming me Kimberly Clark but then my mom said that was the kleenex companies name so she didn't want to do that. They also thought about naming me Grace which most likely then turned into Tracey. They said that if I had been a boy I would've been named Scott. Now it seems like I meet a lot more Tracey's than I used to but I always have to spell my first name because everyone wants to spell it like Tracy. My middle name is very common and they probably just liked the way it flowed with my first name.

My brother's name is very common,Jon, except that most people spell it John. His middle name is my dad's first name.

My other brother's name is Todd and I have no idea how they came up with it. His middle name I think came from someone they knew.

My name is actually Barbara Briana, I go by my middle name.

Barbara is from my mom's sister who died before I was born. She was the one that told my mom "God was going to give her a baby." My mom wasn't supposed to have kids, so my mom named me after her baby sister of course.

My mom picked Briana just because she liked it, and she saw this spelling in a baby book. (And it's said like BriANNA, just spelled different! Many people pronounce it wrong, or if they get too confused just call me Bri :p)

Characters that Leslie Caron has played seems to be responsible for my name(s) as she is a favorite of my mothers.

My name is Lisa Dawn. Lisa from Leslie Caron's characters in An American in Paris (Lise) and Dawn since my father's name is Don.
I'm now referred to has GG by our great grandchildren (another Leslie Caron movie GiGi) which stands for Great Grandmother. They call me that to differentiate between me and their biological great grandmother. :D

Don't have any kids -- which may confuse you because of what I said above. But, when I married Bobcat, he had 3 children and 2 grandsons. Now we have 4 great-grandchildren.

My first name is Gayle, given to me because I was born during a blizzard. My parents initial thought was to name me Blizzard or Stormy. Thank goodness they went for a big wind GALE with a Y in the middle.

Well everyone assumes i was called carol because i was born five days before xmas, NOT SO, my mum actually knew of a girl called caroline, and she liked it, so shortened to carol, i added the E several years later,

As for my son scott, well we both had dogs we had loved in our childhood, called scott believe it or not, he gets quite offended that he was called after a dog, but should not be as we doted on them, and to be truthful it is a bit of a joke, i actually used to watch an american soapie called 'search for tomorrow' Now that is going back a bit, and i loved the guy who played scott and how the americans pronounced it, so that is really how he got his name, again because i am scottish people assume he is called scott because of that WRONG. He would have been Kim Suzanne if a girl.

As for Melissa, well we both just loved the name and her middle name is nicole, which we also think is pretty.If it had been a boy would have been Brandon Stephen if a boy.

I think my parents were going to name my brother Phabian (not sure of the spelling). Good thing they decided on Paul! There was NO way he was going to be named after my dad. My dad is a JR and he HATES his name. He goes by his initials....AL or his name given to him by my moms family....Sean.

My oldest niece has her moms middle name...Lynne. My sisters middle name is Lynn. So we have three, just with different spelling. Melissa (my oldest niece) would have been named Andrew Jacob and called AJ if she had been a boy.

My youngest niece was sort of named after a child I had in my day care class back then. I mentioned the name Tabitha to my sister-in-law and she really liked it. Then she asked me what Tabitha's middle name was. So I found out it was Rose. And that's what she ended up naming her! My moms sister is named Rose, but my SIL won't claim she is named after her.

Even though I was named after my mom's mom, Helen, I have never like my first name. Sorry Grandma Helen that I never met. :D
Growing up, to me, Helen seemed like an old lady's name. There was only one other Helen all through school and she was a bit weird. :rolleyes:

My middle name is Kay and I always wanted my first name to be that. Oh well.

My children are Caleb and Rachael. My son was the first born. I wanted to name him Evan. My husband liked Caleb. Up until the day I was induced for failure to go into labor we had not picked out a name. I had general anesthesia because I had a c-section and back in the day that was what they had to offer. So I was completely out of it for almost the first day after he was born and my baby boy became Caleb Evan, and now I would not change it for the world. He is 24, married and still my sweet boy! :love:

Rachael was a name we both liked. My ex wanted to be able to call her Rock for a nickname. :D She is 22 years old now and he still calls her "Rock" sometimes. When Rachael was a baby she had a full head of black hair and my husband (ex now) used to stand her hair up and call her his "punk rock girl". Still makes me smile after all these years.

So that's my story.....

I was named David after an old mayor of Pittsburgh. I almost got the mayor's last name, Lawrence, for a middle name, but my dad thought it was too long of a name so my middle name is Reed. I like all of the variations of the name "David" except for Davey (yuck!).

My name is Ashley Marie, it doesn't get more generic than that :P It's okay, I like it and most people call me Ash these days', or Actually Ashley. I was going to be an Amanda, but for some reason at the last minute they decided on Ashley.

My twin brother's name is Adam...you would never believe how many people ask me why my name isn't Eve.

My mom let my brothers and I name our little sister, we decided on Monica Star. I love her name.

I'd like to name future hypothetical children Isabel "Izzy" Rose after my grandmother and fMIL and Arwin Joe (or some variation of Arthur/Darwin. maybe Arwyn for a girl) after my dad and grandpa.

I was on the playground and someone called me "stupid", the name stuck.....;)

Cool stories!

Mine is Kari Ann . . . my mom read an article about the Kennedy family, and there was mention of a Karianne, with no middle name listed. She split the name and dropped the "E". :) I love my name, even though most people misspell it constantly and some mispronounce it. It's pronounced like the verb "carry", but I get people who call me "Car-ee" . . . "Car" like a vehicle. I always tell them I'm not that exotic haha.

Clara Elizabeth is our daughter, and we had a top three for most of my pregnancy - Clara, Natalie and Josephine. We ultimately went with Clara because it was unique (it ended up being a choice between Natalie and Clara). Elizabeth because that's both her grandmothers' first names. We plan to have a second, and if it's a girl, we are leaning towards Josephine Marie (Marie is my mom's middle name, Mariana is my husband's mother's middle name . . . funny how they have such similar names). If it's a boy, we are pretty sure we'll call him Kenneth Duane (first names of both our dads). My husband doesn't have a middle name, and I LOVE the name David, so I told him I'd be more than happy to name a son David and give him a middle name, so that he's not a Junior. ;) Although, I like the naming of sons after their fathers.

And, FYI, I think Eleanor is beautiful.

I love some of the classic names my friends are going with . . . Genevieve (Evie for short), Evelyn (also Evy for short), Edie (she was almost named Edith, but they went with the short name for her full name). :)