Manly Monday #9 - What’s in a Name

http://dadofdivas.blogspot.com/2008/07/manly-monday-9-whats-in-name.html

I have been thinking a lot lately about the reasons that people choose the names for their children. For us, our girls’ first names were ones that we found in books and ended up choosing from a long list of contenders. We read many baby books for both pregnancies and found that we had a much easier time agreeing on girls names than on potential boy names. We also found many other girl names than boy names that made it on our list (our boy list was very small to say the least).

The middle names that we chose were family names, and for Diva-J there was not much of a though on it as J-Mom really wanted her middle name to be that of her fraternal grandmother. For Diva-PJ, I wanted her middle name to be that of my maternal grandmother who is my last living grandparent.

Both of the names that we chose came to truly fit our kids and we cannot think of our girls having any other names. I think that most (or probably all) parents would also say this…it’s not just us.

With the birth of famous babies like the Jolie Twins, and others, with unique names, I really question how and why people choose the names that they choose for their children, or why they got named what they did.

For me, whether I was a boy or a girl my parents had chosen more popular names, and growing up I found out that I would have been a Stephanie if I had been born female (I can’t see myself as a Stephanie…so I am glad that I was born a man).

So now I turn to all of you. What is in your name? Why did you name your children the names that you did?

July 13, 2008 |

Comments

8 Comments so far

Charlie on the PA Turnpike July 13, 2008 7:17 pm
The rule of thumb I knew for years before our first was born was simple, and I even blogged about it:

I offered a simple test I used when picking a name with my much-better-half for our sons:

HEY! Give me your lunch money, _blank_!

See? Fill in the blank and you’ll know if you have a good name, especially for boys.
Maureen, Painting/Drawing July 13, 2008 8:09 pm
I named my daughter after a really nice girl I grew up with… and her middle name is from one of my favorite mini-series… but it also comes from back in my family history too.
Half-Past Kissin' Time July 13, 2008 8:24 pm
There’s no special reason my parents picked Barbara Jean. I didn’t like it when I was a kid, but now I like it very much. As for our kids, we wanted names that were nice, but not too common. 16 years ago, Kyle was not that common. Kendall is still not all that common, and I love it. In Hollywood style, we toyed with Grapefruit and Shoelace, but the other names finally won out, fortunately.
tenakim, Moms July 13, 2008 11:13 pm
I used to hate my name, Athena, and I wasn’t the only one, my grandma nicknamed me, Tena and it stuck.

My husband and I were like the 4444’s- nice but not common, we achieved that and are still happy with them and none of my kids hate their name like I did.
trysh, Crafting July 14, 2008 7:14 am
Named the oldest what I did just because I loved the name -and his middle name for his Dad

The middle son I named after my Grandfather - but reversed the first and middle names - and from birth he has been the initials and not the names!

The youngest I wanted to name a family name, but there were too many of them already - so I had to change languages to get it done.

Never got to name a girl….sigh…
ourcrookedtree, Moms July 14, 2008 6:39 pm
Hubs and I met at Gateway selling computers. They did not let us use our real names (Carie is very common and I do not want my commission going to another Carie ☺) Hubs went by Gannon (like Rich who at the time was with the KC Chiefs) and I went by Kendall (like the wine-o I am). Our oldest is Gannon. If our second was a girl he would have naturally have been Kendall. No dice. The Babe is Beau. I was totally against it since he has a cousin six months older named Luke but after a while hubs was able to pursued me.
P G, Dads July 14, 2008 11:15 pm
My oldest son and daughter (#s 1 & 3) were predestined to be named what they were. My second son and daughter (#s 2 & 4) were just names that we liked, picked out of books and websites.

As it turns out my second son’s name became very popular about two years after he was born. He won’t have many with the same name in his classes as he goes through school, but they are out there just on his heals.
Weaselmomma, Moms July 15, 2008 9:56 am
LOL, to answer that question would take a novel, so I won’t go into it here.
But I can tell you a story from about 1950. My Grandmother was a nurse in the maternity ward. There was an inner city black couple that came in and the wife gave birth to their first daughter. They had a house full of sons and only boy names picked out. They had a hard time trying to name their daughter even after a 5 day hospital stay. The nurses insisted they needed a name to put on the birth certificate. Still nothing from the parents. So the nurses just put Female Jones on the document.
The mother loved it! Said Female (pronounced Fe-molly), what a wonderful name! That is the perfect name you piced for our little girl!
And so it was her name. Years later one of my Aunts on the other side of the family worked an office job with the grown woman Female Jones.
True story.