Why did your parents name you the name you have?

[Parker Clan]

We are 100% Greek, and the tradition is to name the first born (which is me, after the fathers mother or father) I was named a very Greek name after my Yiayia (grandma in Greek). I used to be embarrassed of the name as a child but I LOVE how unique it is!!

 

[Kellykins1218]

They picked it because they liked it. I was due on Christmas so Holly and Noel were kicked around, too.

 

[punkin]

I'm named after my great grandfather.

 

[*3*Mouseketeers]

My Mom picked out the name "Sharon" for me but while she was pregnant with me Sharon Tate was murdered so she changed it to "Karen"

 

[Gary M]

I was named after movie actor Gary Cooper.

 

[fauna74]

I got my name (Amy) because I was only 4.5 lb when I was born (full term) so my mom wanted to give me a "little" name. I'm the only sibling, out of six, not named for family
I gave my daughter a more unusual name- I had a professor in college whose first name was Carlin. I always loved it, so my daughter's name is a different spelling of it.

 

[tvguy]

My Mom picked out the name "Sharon" for me but while she was pregnant with me Sharon Tate was murdered so she changed it to "Karen"

Yes, DW and I wanted to avoid any link between our kids names and any other famous or notorious person (or animal). One of the names we pre-picked for our son was Phillip. But he was born on ground hog day.......and we didn't want him burdened with being linked to Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who sees...or doesn't see his shadow.
DD, we had 2 names picked also. We picked Hillary. We clearly missed the mark on that. But she was born before Bill Clinton even announced he was running for President, so nobody outside Arkansas had heard of Hillary Clinton . So DD has to deal with THAT the rest of her life. That, and my mom, thought of Hillary as a male name.......the name websites list it as both a masculine and feminine name.

 

[Kitty 34]

My mom had an infant sister named Jackie who died at 3 months. Also, Jacqueline Kennedy was very popular since JFK had died the year I was born. My parents are/were French native speaking and Jacqueline flows so nicely in French.That's how I got named Jackie.

Have to admit, I'm not enjoying reading the posts where people don't reveal their names. No fun.

Oops, OP here. I am one of them so I edited my first post. My first name is Elizabeth.

 

[YoYoAurora]

My first name is one my parents chose because they liked it. My middle name is my father's favorite first cousin's first name. Both parents swore to me that my name was not a family name.

I hated my first name with a passion and frequently wished that my paternal grandfather had won the name game (Grace) or that my maternal grandmother had won (Victoria) as I liked those names better. My middle name wasn't much better.

The other names my parents had in the hopper for my first name were Charlotte, Margaret, and Phoebe, all family names.

When I begin researching our family history, I discover that not only am I not the first in the family with this first name - middle name combination, it occurs on both sides.

I dropped my middle name when I married in favor of my maiden name.

 

[SC Minnie]

I'm named after a Nat King Cole song. My middle name was my Mom's middle name but I dropped it when I got married and use my maiden name as a middle name. I really dislike my name.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I originally was going to be Elizabeth and called Beth, but then my aunt had her baby and named her Bethany, so they decided on Tiffany (no offense to anyone with that name, but...it's not at all my taste). Then, right before my mom had me, she was at the laundromat and was reading a copy of True Story magazine (lol) and a woman in there had a daughter named Eden. My mom fell in love with the name and my dad was out of town on tour (he was a musician) when my mom went into labor and had me, so she named me Eden Elizabeth (my mom's and my grandmother's middle names are Elizabeth, too).

Oh, if I were a boy, they were going to name me Alexander and call me Alec. Glad they didn't, though, because my brother's name is Eric and I think they're way too similar sounding for siblings.

 

[prprincess]

Right before I was born, my grandmother bought a new set of encyclopedias, and as a "free gift" she got this huge book of names and name meanings. Apparently, my mother and my aunt were obsessed with it and used to read through it together for hours. They came across my name, and for some reason, loved it...it's okay to me now that I'm older. It's just not very common, so as a kid I hated it because I could never find personalized items. I think I've met a total of three people in my entire life with the same name.

 

[usnuzuloose]

The only thing I can think of would be the song. Other than that I don't know.

 

[willowsnn3]

My Mom picked out the name "Sharon" for me but while she was pregnant with me Sharon Tate was murdered so she changed it to "Karen"

I was pregnant with my first daughter at that time also and it was a very upsetting time with all the news stories.
I named my daughter Wendy. Just thought it was whimsical and enchanting.

I am Susan. Named after Susan Hayward, my mom's favorite actress at the time.

 

[georgina]

I was the 6th girl, maybe they were running out of names? My mom is Irish so we all have Irish names, mine has a unique spelling which people always think is a mistake.

I always assumed Debbie Reynolds made Debbie popular when I was born (1960), sure are enough of us. My middle name is my mom's middle name.

We are definitely the Debbie/Barbara/Linda/Lisa generation!

Have to admit, I'm not enjoying reading the posts where people don't reveal their names. No fun.

Sorry, mine is unique enough to be possibly identifying, and I value my privacy.

 

[robinb]

I am named after my mother's aunt.

 

[DLmama]

I have an older cousin named Sharon. When my mom was pregnant, Sharon wanted me to be named after her, but my mom didn't want cousins to have the same name, so I became Shannon. My middle name, Reva, is my maternal grandmother's first name.

 

[tazdev3225]

I like these threads. I was named after a German girl who either worked at my grandparents bakery or the German Bakers Association they belonged too. I heard 2 different stories on it. My mom liked the name because she figured I wouldn't get a nickname. She was wrong as my brothers all call me Sis. I used to hate that but one of my favorite aunts also went by Sis so it grew on me.

When I took German in High School my teacher gave us German names. Mine was Lore as that is how my name is spelled in German. The store girl spelled it Lorrie so that was what my parents named me. I refused to answer my teacher unless he called me by my given name. I was a bit of a brat in school and I didn't really like the teacher.

My youngest daughter was actually named after my Aunt Sis. Her name was Lizette which is a variation of Elizabeth. DD is just plain Beth. I wasn't crazy about the other versions and she looked like a Beth.

 

[ChickieToo]

My parents were married for nine years and my mother couldn't get pregnant. No real reason, just one of those things. They went on vacation to Quebec and my mother went to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and prayed for children. She also went to St Joseph's Basilica and prayed for children. At both she promised she would name a child after them. A little while after they got home my mother discovered she was pregnant--and she already was pregnant when she went to Quebec, but didn't know it yet. She honored her promises and my name is Joanne. I never liked my name, but the story makes it special. My middle name is her first name. And I used it as my daughter's middle name: Marie.

Side note: Then she had my brother and sister in a short order. Three of us in barely more than 4 years. She always said she had to go back to church to make it stop! My sister's middle name is Marie and so is her daughter's.

 

[dollarmite]

My parents had narrowed it down to four girls names. I don't know why they picked the one they did, but I'm glad they did as it's the least common of the four. It's still a perfectly normal name, and most people in the Commonwealth countries would've heard of it. It went out of fashion for a while, but I do hear the occasional young person with it nowadays. I get a kick out of seeing the creative spellings people in the US come up with for it when I visit and they need to write it down on orders or whatever. (On the flipside, my sister's name is rather unusual here, but perfectly common in the US).

Stephanie, Jackie and Megan were the other three contenders. I don't like the name Jackie so am glad they didn't pic that one. Stephanie got ruled out as my aunt and uncle had a baby boy called Steven a few months before I was born, so my mother decided that she couldn't have two cousins born so close with similar names. I thought that was ridiculous - if I had my heart set on a name I'd use it regardless of how many other people in the family had the same or a similar name.

My middle name is after my maternal grandmother. She only ever went by her middle name, or a derivative of it. My middle name is the derivative, which is a perfectly legal name on its own. I love my grandmother very much, but have always hated my middle name as (1) it's a unisex name (something I absolutely hate with a passion); and (2) it's only three letters long, two of which are the same letter, so it just looks so dull.