Question of the Day - Tuesday, July 8

Greetings!   Happy Tuesday ~
 

Do you know the story of how or why your parent(s) chose your first name? What were you almost called?

My parents wanted something unique and elegant, with a bit of history, but also something that could be said the three languages comfortably, since my entire family consisted of French, English and Finnish speakers. So they happily chose "Cora". Other candidates were Helena, Laura, Leah, Della, Davina or Clarissa. My dad liked Laura, but my mother didn't, plus it sounded too different when said between languages. Helena sounded too close to the name of my uncles wife, and also thought it was too tedious to say with my last names, one of them starting with an H too. Leah was the name of my dad's beloved aunt, but it was suddenly already taken prior to my arrival by another family member (Then again by another family member years later anyway). The last three were just other ideas on their own. At any rate, I'm pretty content with Cora!

Phew, long story.

I also was not named for a month 
 

There was no big story behind my name.  My mother heard someone on TV who was named Denise and she thought it was pretty.  When she was filling out the info for my birth certificate she wasn't sure of the spelling and her roommate told her Denice so I have a different spelling.  Here lately I have seen a few others with that spelling. 

I used to work with a lady from Poland and her name was Helena, it must be common to several languages.

i don't know the story of why my parents chose my name. i know that i was named after my dad's mother, jennifer. i don't think my paternal grandmother was alive when i was born, nor were either of my grandfathers. my maternal grandmother died when i was about 6 months old. my dad told me that his mother was an unhappy person, though i'm not sure of the why's to that.

i, along with my sister and brother, was adopted. my sister and brother have both sought and located their natural parents, and they have relationships with them. i chose not to, at least not until after my parents (adoptive) have died, out of love and respect for them.

I was named after some aunt in Austria.  None of us had ever met her.  My mom saw pictures and heard stories was all.

I don't think there's a story to my English name. My brothers' middle names were their parents' first names (Steven Richard, David Sandy) but I didn't follow suit with that either.

My paternal grandpa supplied all of his grandchildren's Chinese names. Almost every name has a story there, I think... Since the characters themselves are words too, the name has a meaning (like most names in other languages) so the idea still is that a child would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. My Chinese name means gracious/generous and swift/wise.

My nephew's Chinese name was kind of a rip off, probably because my grandpa had died and wasn't around to supply good names... The responsibility fell to my dad, the paternal grandfather, but he was at a complete loss, so the maternal grandfather chose one. They just chose it because it sounds like his English name (Kyle = Kai Ho).

I was named after my mother's favorite movie star's daughter. It was the daughter's middle name and I've never liked it much.   

my mom wanted to name me Tessa, my dad wanted to name me Monika. so somehow they agreed on Cornelia. i usually go by Connie

Mine was a pretty long process, but ultimately not very interesting. My name is a mixture of the Chinese characters for "flow", "gold" and "language", which roughly translates to wealth and eloquence. I'm not sure I have either. 

If I was a boy I would've been Michael. For a girl My mom wanted a play on her name which is Lorraine so she wanted Laura Rain but dad hated it so I ended up Laurie.

mickNsnicks2mom said:

i don't know the story of why my parents chose my name. i know that i was named after my dad's mother, jennifer. i don't think my paternal grandmother was alive when i was born, nor were either of my grandfathers. my maternal grandmother died when i was about 6 months old. my dad told me that his mother was an unhappy person, though i'm not sure of the why's to that.

i, along with my sister and brother, was adopted. my sister and brother have both sought and located their natural parents, and they have relationships with them. i chose not to, at least not until after my parents (adoptive) have died, out of love and respect for them.

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Good for you.

SwampWitch said:

I was named after my mother's favorite movie star's daughter. It was the daughter's middle name and I've never liked it much. :rolleyes2  

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You could change it?

With me as far as I know my mum just liked it and dad did what he was told! :lol3:

My name is Kristal. My mom liked the name and wanted an unusual spelling. If I were a boy it would have been Kristoffer. I don't think there were any other names in the running. My middle name is a family name and goes oddly with my last name :/. My mom says she didn't think of how it went together.

Couple days late but oh well. 

My mom originally wanted to name me Gabrielle after my grandfather, her dad (Gabriel). But I have eczema and she didn't want kids calling me "Scabby Gabby" at school. Then she thought Alyssandra was unique but went with Alyssa instead. After her favorite flower, the Alyssum. So in the end I got named Alyssa Gabrielle, and I am very pleased

AlyssaM said:

 
Couple days late but oh well. 

My mom originally wanted to name me Gabrielle after my grandfather, her dad (Gabriel). But I have eczema and she didn't want kids calling me "Scabby Gabby" at school. Then she thought Alyssandra was unique but went with Alyssa instead. After her favorite flower, the Alyssum. So in the end I got named Alyssa Gabrielle, and I am very pleased

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That is great that your mom thought about the potential negatives for a name.  I think all of us know or have known people that has made us wonder 'what were their parents thinking when they named their child'

I was named the female version of my father's first name.

My name is Pamela Sue. I was born at the Camp LeJeune Marine base in North Carolina. 

When I was born, Mom wanted to name me Janet LeJeune.   Dad was appalled....thank goodness....and he won that battle. I'm telling you that, had I really been named that, I would have changed it as soon as I got old enough to do so. That's a terrible thing to do to a baby. I don't really know where they came up with Pamela Sue, but I'm glad they did.

A couple years after I was born, Mom's best friend gave birth to a baby girl. She always liked the name Pamela and she asked Mom if she could name her baby Pamela, too. Mom didn't care. A couple days later, Mom's friend told her that her new baby's name was Pamela Sue. Mom was a little put out that she took the whole name. And it caused problems as we were growing up together. They would call "Hey, Pam!" and we'd both come running because we didn't know who they wanted.   

AlyssaM said:

Couple days late but oh well. 


My mom originally wanted to name me Gabrielle after my grandfather, her dad (Gabriel). But I have eczema and she didn't want kids calling me "Scabby Gabby" at school. Then she thought Alyssandra was unique but went with Alyssa instead. After her favorite flower, the Alyssum. So in the end I got named Alyssa Gabrielle, and I am very pleased

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This made me giggle! When my sister had her first kid years ago, we discovered my Mom has the most unusual 'talent' : she can immediately make fun of just about ANY name. We were discussing different names and she'd say, "no, that one is no good... ' and do a stupid little sing-songy, rhyming jest of each name. My sister settled on Elizabeth, partly because Mom couldn't come up with a way for kids to make fun of it (other than Lizard Breath).

Jeez, reading this back makes my Mom sound like a horrid monster, but it was really funny and we were laughing so hard my stomach hurt. She is goofy, not mean. Plus, my sister and I got to hear the story of how some kids used to make fun of my Mom's legs when she was a girl (skinny and hairy). It was a unique bonding experience I had totally forgotten about, until I read your post.

My Dad named me Stephanie because he simply liked the name. I would have been Michael if I were a boy. I am assuming Mom tested those names out, too!

My father wanted to name me Leslie. My mother had always wanted to name a girl Karen. My mother won. :lol3: