How did you get your name?

62 posts / 0 new
Last post
How did you get your name?

I just started a reintroduce yourself thread in the Welcome Forum, and while I was thinking about it, I came across some fun introduce yourself questions. I thought it might be fun to answer some of them, starting with how did you get your name?

My parents are both teachers, so when they were looking for names they were looking for a name that they hadn't yet had on a student. Marisa, I guess, was the favorite. My middle name, Lerin, is a combo of my grandmother's names (Irene and Billie).

My first name came about because my parents had a waitress named "Amanda," and they liked the name. My middle name is actually the middle name of both of my grandmothers, so my parents gave it to me. One of my daughters has that middle name too.

My mother is from Sweden and my father is from Norway. While the countries are neighbors, there is definitely some national pride / rivalry between the two countries (at least that is how it felt growing up). My Mom named me after her best friend growing up - Kristina Anna. Since my mom picked the name my Dad chose the spelling. In Norway- names end with an 'e' that in Sweden would end with an 'a'. Pronunciation is basically the same (until you come to America). Together they decided to start my name with the traditional American CH verses Scandinavian K so that my name would be unique in their home countries. Christine Anne- But the way both my parents said it was Christina Anna with rolled R in t the Christine and AU instead of short A for the start of Anna. I think the Scandinavian pronunciation is much prettier than the American.

My mother wanted to name me Raven, but my grandma's last name was March, so my dad picked April. My middle name is after my Grandma as well, Janell. She died when my dad was 17.

One of my older sisters wanted a brother so when my mom was pregnant with me she insisted on calling the baby Michael. When I was born not a boy, haha, they just changed the name to a similar name, but in a more female name. She on the other hand was named after a grandmother. I guess I get a funny story instead. smiley

Michelle, my baby sister got a feminine version of the boy name my parents had picked out ever since they got married. My dad's family had a tradition of giving the father's initials to the oldest son, so my parents had picked out a name to fit those initials for their first son. Joke was on them, though: they ended up with five girls before they decided they were just done and gave the initials to my baby sister, shifting the boy name they'd picked out to the feminine version instead.

Such great stories! Thanks for sharing, and keep them coming!

My name is actually Argina. My mother made it up. She was a Gina Lollobrigida fan and wanted to name me after her but didn't want the usual name Regina. She said she went through the alphabet starting with A'gina, B'gina until she got to R'gina. She liked the sound but not the spelling so she added a silent A to the beginning.

My middle name is Leigh. I was the fifth generation with the middle name Lee but the first girl with the name. My brother resumed the the male version by giving his son the middle name Lee. In my family, having Lee as part of your name is an honor. Recent generations have changed it up a bit by using it as part of a name such as Kaylee, Levi, etc.

Being from Alabama where a souther drawl is the norm, when I am introduced as "Argina" people think they are saying "Our Gina". LOL.

My parents just liked Rachel and my mom made up my middle name, it's in honor of my Aunt Brenda, my MN is Brein. BREE-in. Like speaking "breathe in" out loud.

I love this thread! My dad picked my name after a soap opera actress he apparently liked. My middle name is Lea (pronounced Lee) which is my dad's middle name (his is spelled the traditional way).

It is fun where names come from.

Before I was born my aunt baby that did not survive childbirth that was to be named Crystal and my dad's grandmother, Ann, had passed away just before I arrived. My mom wanted to use those two names but didn't like Crystal-Ann and somehow she played with letters to justify Christianna.

But my middle name is the more interesting one -- Elzina. I"m named after my aunt who passed away who is named after her mother (my grandmother). But my mom and her mother do not get along so it's not unusual for my Mom to yell at people for assuming that I'm named after my grandmother. It always happens at a very inappropriate time and I'm left standing with my mouth agape in embarrassment (like at work in front of my boss).

Oh man, Christianna, that's A LOT! Hang in there! smiley

So many great stories! Thanks for sharing smiley

Love this thread!
So, My maternal grandma had 2 siblings... and NONE of them could have children, especially the first born son, John William. Finally at 39 (in the late 40's) my grandma the youngest got pregnant... she always wanted to honor her brother and carry on some of their Gaelic history/family name. But alas she had a girl and was always sad she couldn't name her only child after him. So, many years later when my mom became pregnant with me at 20 and wanted to help my grandmother honor him... As the first grandbaby, my mom did research and found that Sean was a male Gaelic version of the English version John. But alas, I was a girl, too... LoL -- Sooooo, she then decided Seana (Shawna, traditional English) as the feminine version. My middle name is Renee' meaning rebirth (for honoring my father's French side of the family). My maiden name was St. Peter... so it worked together. I have always liked my name... maybe because I always knew there was a pride to why I carried it. smiley smiley smiley

I was born pre-mature and with RH factor, so the Nuns at the hospital told mom I probably wouldn't make it through the night. Mom had chose the name Denise (which is now my middle name) but when my Auntie Dianne came to the hospital to be at my mom's side, I pulled through and my mom named me after her smiley

I was named after my dad (Donald). My mom didn't want the traditional Donna, so she gave me a spanish version. My middle name is Dee after my mother's nickname.

My grandparents (my fathers side) wanted my parents to name me after my grandfather. I would have been called Johanna Petronella (Petra).
But my mother didn't like the idea of naming after any grandparent. So they called me Yvonne, a french name very popular in those days.
My grandparents were very angry about that. Some years later my fathers sister got two boys, both named after my grandparents. The boys always got more and more expensive presents than I got, just because I wasn't named after them. I didn't understand that at all when I was little. When I was 12 years old my parents were fed up with it and broke up with them. I never have seen them since then.

My mother told me that she had a childhood friend named Cheryl and she always liked that name.

I am a genealogist and I have not come across any Debra's in the direct line of any of the 4 lines that are the focus of my main research. But I have the short spelling version of Deborah who was the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. I've always been very independent, which is often the result of being the first born in a family, the first born of six in my case.

This is a fun thread!

I have the same middle name as my mom and my great-aunt, Lee. I've been told that my parents were originally planning on naming me Sarah, but they changed it to Rebecca so I wouldn't be named after pound cake. smiley (For the non-Americans, Sara Lee is a frozen baked goods brand here.) But nearly everyone I know has called me Becky for as long as I can remember, except for my dad, who usually calls me Becca.

Gina- when we started having kids, I originally had Kaylee in mind as a girl's name for that same reason. But I ended up going with my original second choice girl's name. No regrets.

My mother's name growing up was ANDREA JUNE TALLENTIRE. She said it was a mouthful and she wanted a simple name for me. JILL It's evolved to Jillian online because of there being more than one Jill with my last name. Strange.

So after naming me JILL - no way to lengthen or shorten - she names my sister Jacquelyn. Oh yeah. That's Jackie and Jill in case you didn't catch that.

Such fun stories! Thanks for sharing.

My mother got her middle name from her mother and never liked it, so my parents decided to not go with any family traditions when they picked names for me and my brother - they just picked names they liked the sound of. Mum wanted Lovisa to be my first name; dad wanted Kristin for my first name and got his way in the end - and mum has since said many times that she's glad, because I'm "so much more a Kristin than I am a Lovisa!" smiley

I have no idea where this popped into my mind from, lol, but my now 21 year old son had a little girl in his Kindergarten class named Lyrin, pronounced how I assume your MN is, Marisa! And I ended up having her little sister, Rhyann in my Preschool class a few years later and often saw Lyrin at pickup. It just came to me!

How fun! She's probably never known anyone with the same name either.

My Nana's maiden name was Terrell. I would have changed my name years ago if it weren't for the fact that I absolutely adored my Nana.

Mom liked her former boss's daughter's spelling...so I ended up with the French male spelling of my given name, René, despite being female. Holly is my maiden name.

My son's first and middle names are a combination of a good friend's and my middle names; that friend was a huge emotional and physical support when I conceived after a rape on campus, even to the point of finding me a place to stay when my father kicked me out of the house, and I chose to honor that desperately-needed assistance in my son's name.

Glad you had such a friend in such a difficult time Holly smiley

Holly I'm sorry you had such a difficult time.
It's interesting reading the stories here, here's mine.

My parents had a bit of a debate about my name when I was born (1956).

My mom wanted to name me "Mary Catherine". My dad vetoed that name because he said everyone would assume I was Roman Catholic. For the record, my father isn't biased against Catholics, although raised a Protestant, he attended a Roman Catholic university, St Francis Xavier. When he was growing up in the 1930s however in Nova Scotia (a province on the east coast of Canada) was very divided by religious denomination. When the immigrants got off the boats (largely from Scotland) in the 1800s, there were signs directing "Protestants this way" "Catholics this way" so the settlements and towns were largely settled by one group or another and little interaction between the two groups. (My dad was considered strange for going to university in the first place, let alone a Catholic university.) When my parents moved here to Toronto, Ontario in 1953, some landlords refused to rent to them because my dad was wearing his St. Francis Xavier jacket. My mom asked him "why didn't you tell him that we aren't Catholic?". My dad replied, "I don't want a bigot for a landlord." Thank goodness that type of bigotry has long vanished here. My younger sister did get the name Catherine (although without Mary).

Instead my mom chose to name me "Alberta Anne"; "Alberta" after her wonderful American dad "Clinton Albert" who was always called by his middle name, "Bert". She always intended that I be called Anne but that the name order of Alberta Anne sounded better than the reverse. Frankly, it's a bit of pain using middle name rather than my first name but I prefer Anne to Alberta which unfortunately some people wanted to shorten to "Bertha"! "Ali" is fine but no way would I accept Bertha as a nickname!

The other drawback to having Alberta as a first name is that there is a Canadian province named Alberta. My mom being an American originally from the midwest (my parents met on a blind date in Detroit! She was working there, he was getting his engineering degree) never considered that it was also the name of a province. When I was a kid, when other kids found out, they'd tease me by asking if I had "a brother named Manitoba" or a "sister named Saskatchewan" after other provinces!

My children were given mostly family names (3 of them because my husband's last name is very common. He has the opposite problem I have = some people can't spell or pronounce my last name and his is too common). Although I kept my last name when I got married, we chose to give the kids his last name.

My daughter is Elisabeth Christine Terrill - Elisabeth being my husband's grandmother, Christine from one of my grandmothers (and the name I wanted when I was younger) and Terrill after my my mom's parents. (Terrill was their last name). We picked the German spelling "Elisabeth" rather than "Elizabeth" because it is less common and my mother-in-law's heritage is ethnic German from eastern Europe originally. I wanted Corinne after my grandmother Cora but my husband vetoed that name He wanted "Diane" which I told him was a 50s boomer name and I disliked it because it sounded like "die Anne". We both liked the names we chose.

My son was Graham Lincoln Terrill - Graham because it's a good Scottish name as my husband and I have a lot of Scottish heritage. (Although my dad said he never knew anyone in Nova Scotia with the name Graham), Lincoln after my husband's grandfather (another good Scottish name). I finally convinced my husband not to use Lincoln as a first name because of the potential for insulting rhyming nicknames from other kids like "stinking Lincoln""Link the fink" etc. He also got the name "Terrill" from my dear American grandparents. (I dreamed about them when I was pregnant with both children.)

Pages