Comments on: Blah la la Part VII

By: LJ

LJ — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:26:07 +0000

True story: I was named after the woman who played the Bionic Woman.

By: KLTTX

KLTTX — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:42:36 +0000

I have always gone by my middle name which caused quite a few problems when I got married because I wanted to keep my maiden name as my middle name. I now officially have four names. My first name is Marlissa, a combination of Margaret and Melissa. Melissa was an ex-girlfriend (then really good friend) of my dad and Margaret is her mother. Not sure how my dad convinced my mom to name me that but calling me by my middle name may have been her idea

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:11:43 +0000

What a fun question. I love names. I was supposed to be Beth, my mother had her heart set on that name and she said she “knew” I was a girl all along, so that was the only name they had in mind. When I was born, I apparently “didn’t look like” a Beth, so I went nameless for three weeks. Apparently the process of choosing a name that was not Beth was so taxing that I never did get a middle name. I chose Veronica for my confirmation name. For a long time that was the name I wanted. As a child I hated my name because my parents called me Becky, which is a perfectly fine name, but it never felt like MINE. I have retrained everyone to call me Rebecca and I like it; it is a nice solid classic name.

Funnily enough, my middle sister got two names (Elena Ruth, both of which I love) and my youngest sister got three names (Martha Mary Elizabeth, so they did eventually work Beth in… sort of), so I guess they got over their naming anxiety. But my youngest sister became a nun and abandoned her original name and is now called Illaria (Italian version of Hilary).

I gave my sons unusual names on purpose because our last name is the most common name in the English speaking world. My oldest is named Rhett Joseph. Everyone thinks that his name is Rex. He is not named after Rhett Butler; I got the idea from Rhett Miller of the Old 97s. Joseph is for my granddad. My youngest is named Jasper Clive. We thought Jasper was cute and Clive was my first choice for his first name but my husband vetoed it because it was an “awful big name for a little baby”. He wanted to give him a family name for a middle name, because the three other children have that, but we eventually went so far back in his family that he was considering Cleophus (true). At that point I put my foot down and said I wanted Clive, dammit.

Sorry, that was a really long comment! But it was a really good question!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:47:09 +0000

I am not a fan of my name. There is no great history or family tradition – my parents just liked it, apparently. It’s not that Sarah is a bad name, I just think that it’s boring and used a lot. As is my last name. And boring first name + boring last name = blah.

I like my middle name, which was my maternal grandmother’s. At least my parents didn’t name me after my paternal grandmother, as her name was Phyllis Ethel. But then again, she always hated her name, and threatened to wallop her kids if anyone tried to name any grandchild after her! Thank goodness for that.

By: Lolly

Lolly — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:27:08 +0000

My name “means” (if you look in naming books) “Famous Light”. My folks did not have any thought of the meaning when they named me. My mother had wanted to name my older brother, if he had been a girl, after her mother’s first name and the name I got for a middle name. But (a) he was born a boy and missed out on that and (b) one of her sorority sisters had named HER girl that exact name, and my mother pouted that now she couldn’t use it, even when her mother reminded her that she and said sorority sister would never be living in the same town and it wouldn’t matter. So, when I asked how she came up with my name, she said she had just heard my first name somewhere, a movie maybe, and she just liked it, and my middle name was her passive aggressive claim to part of her original plan. Funny that often when people first hear my name they don’t hear “it” but “hear” and repeat back with a ??? the name my brother would have had.

I used to wish I had a ‘normal’ name (defined as one of those that you can go in a store and buy a keychain or something with the name one of those hanging there waiting), but then, like so many of us it seems, I was glad to have something a bit my own; but then I really wish I’d been named “Smith” (family name) as that would definitely have been a name to claim that suited.

I’m so uncomfortable with my name – I never know really what to tell people to call me because in full they have difficulty with it. When younger, I was just called part of it, but when I went to college, where I knew no one, I insisted on using the full name. Somehow it felt like a fraud that I could not wholeheartedly embrace all of it. But then I had it and I kept it up. But it doesn’t feel like mine. But it is! “Hey, You” would work, too.

By: B

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:27:14 +0000

I am named after the women in my family. My first name, Amber, comes from my great-great grandmother. My middle name, Kalynn, is a combination of my grandmothers’ names, Kay & Evelyn. If I ever have a daughter she will also be named after our grandmothers.

By: V

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:23:24 +0000

Cool, you’re named after one of the Dionne Quintuplets.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:38:05 +0000

Oh..and true story. The same daughter is named Amanda. I named her after Spock’s mother.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:36:54 +0000

I don’t know why my parents picked Barbara. I was born at home and they hadn’t chosen a name, so I was nameless for a few days. My middle name is the same as my Great Aunt’s because we were both born on the 16th of the month. When my daughter was born on my birthday, I gave her my (our) middle name.