What's in a name?

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We had an interesting discussion this weekend because one of DH's co-residents is a "V" as in, he's the fifth person to be named the same name in his family. BUT, this is not another baby naming thread.

I'm interested in YOUR names (you don't have to reveal them - I just want the origin). Who were you named after? Do you know what your name would have been if you had been a different sex? AND, if you could choose your own name, what would it be?

My first name is biblical and has an uncommon spelling because it's the European spelling. My middle name is a family named going back to the 1700s...in fact, my most recent ancestor with this name was burned at the stake for being a witch (she probably had epilepsy).

Growing up, I wanted to be named something "preppy" and "feminine" (in quotes because this was my opinion of these names) like Paige or Laurel.

[L.Jane]

My name is both biblical and a family name. I am named after my great grandmother. It is Jewish tradition to name your child after someone who has passed away. (It is considered bad luck to name after someone who is alive, thus we don't have jrs or so on). My parents wanted to name me the hebrew name but realized it was just going to be pronounced wrong my whole life and didn't want me to have to correct everyone so they went with the english version of it. My parents never came to an agreement of what they would have named me if I had been a boy.

Growing up I wanted to be anything that could be shortened into a boys name like Samantha. I was a bit of a tomboy. I grew out of that.

[HouseofWool]

T&S - I love the spelling of your first name...

My full name is from a character in a book my mom was reading while pregnant with me. I've never liked it. Ever. Then, when I went to Brazil in high school, I discovered, painfully, that the Portuguese version of my name means COMB, like "the red comb on a chicken's head". Needless to say, I shortened it to Kris and haven't looked back.

If I were to have been a boy, it would have been Michael, along with 5% of the boys born in that era.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Oh, I forgot to say that I would have been Eric if I was a boy after a college classmate of my father's who passed in his 20s of cancer. They called me "E" my whole life growing up in honor of him and his nickname.

[moonlight]

My mom picked my name from one of her pediatric pts when she was working at a pediatrician's office. When I was growing up I had the unique spelling. Now when I see my name it's always spelled like my name. Mom and I share the same middle name which is an homage to my grandmother's first name. Much to my mother's chagrin I didn't pass on the middle name to DD, but I did pick a middle name that still honored the same grandmother's first name. Mom says she knew I was a girl and didn't even pick a boy name. Her first choice in naming me was Jacquetta. Dad didn't like it.

[HouseofWool]

My mom picked my name from one of her pediatric pts when she was working at a pediatrician's office. When I was growing up I had the unique spelling. Now when I see my name it's always spelled like my name. Mom and I share the same middle name which is an homage to my grandmother's first name. Much to my mother's chagrin I didn't pass on the middle name to DD, but I did pick a middle name that still honored the same grandmother's first name. Mom says she knew I was a girl and didn't even pick a boy name. Her first choice in naming me was Jacquetta. Dad didn't like it.

Oh good gawd, Jacquetta? You would have bullied to no end over that. Thank goodness your dad stepped up and saved you!

[moonlight]

Oh good gawd, Jacquetta? You would have bullied to no end over that. Thank goodness your dad stepped up and saved you!

I'll tell him you said that. haha! That made me LOL. One of my best friends when as a child is named Jannetta. Some how I think that's prettier.

[HouseofWool]

I'll tell him you said that. haha! That made me LOL. One of my best friends when as a child is named Jannetta. Some how I think that's prettier.

Jannetta is fine, not the norm, but not wild and crazy, get a kid beat up on the playground. Jacquetta, on the other hand...

[alison]

My mom picked my first name off a list of unpronounceable Japanese names. I hate my first name. She wanted to give me my middle name as my first name, but her in-laws thought it was a horrible name, and so that's why it got bumped to second place.

I have my mom's maiden name. And I kept my last name when I got married. Who needs an unpronounceable Japanese first name with an unpronounceable German last name? .

Dd has my great grandmother's name, my middle name for her middle name, and dh's last name. She is called "Maya" very often, and I sometimes have regrets about the spelling.

[poky]

To my understanding, my parents had a hell of a time picking names for me and my sister because they were both school teachers, and most common names had associations with at least one kid who was an annoying brat. My sister ended up with a very british name, somehow (both of her names are royal family first names). My middle name is the same as my mom's middle name, and the same as a great-aunt's first name, too. I have no idea what my name would have been if I'd been a boy. I was told at one point that they considered naming me Chamonix (name of the place where the first winter olympics was held). I've occasionally wondered just how different my life would have been if they'd done that.

[GrayMatterWife]

My first name starts with an "A." my parents thought they were having a boy and never bothered to pick out a girl's name. I am pretty sure they opened the baby names book and this was the first one alphabetically. My middle name is my maternal grandmother's middle name, and it is also a hyphenated part of my elder daughter's first name.

No idea what I would have been named if I'd been a boy.

I like my name. If I had to re-name myself, I would choose Hadassah.

[MsSassyBaskets]

I was named after a close family friend of my mom's. But they named me because of the nickname that they could give me based on my full name. A nickname which I HATED by the time I was in 3rd grade, and switched to using my full name. So, fail. I like my full name though. I would have been Benjamin, after my grandpa, if I'd been male.

[SuzySunshine]

My mom picked my name out of my uncle's yearbook because they did not have a name for me when they went into the hospital. I think if I went by my full name people would spell it correctly but since I go by a shortened version it is often misspelled. If I had been a boy I would have been named after my dad in some way.

My middle name is a form of Mary and my two sisters and I all have the same middle name, its a Catholic tradition (or at least in my family) to have some form of a saint's name in your name.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

I have no clue where my first name comes from - but it was #1 the year I was born. My bio mother named me "Christine", but I already had a cousin with that name, so my parents changed it. My middle name is Ann like my mother and her mother (and 50% of other caucasian females )

I have a friend whose parents were convinced she was going to be a boy based on wives' tales - she was supposed to be Christopher, but is Kristin. She has a younger brother named Christopher!

[diggitydot]

I am proof that no parent should EVER tell the toddler older sib that they "get to name the baby". I was either going to be Barbie Doll or Jesus Christ. I'm not joking. Thankfully, my parents took sis to see Peter Pan just before I was born.