given names
When I was born, my mother wanted to name me "Jael," after a biblical character known primarily for committing a particularly gruesome murder (in a good cause, to be sure). My father vetoed the name on the grounds that it would inevitably be pronounced "jail" and would inevitably lead to a lifetime spent answering the question whether my last name was "bird" or "bait." And so they chose a entirely different name for me, something innocuous and pretty and bland.
Did your parents consider giving you a different name? What would they named you if you had been a boy (or if you'd been a girl if, in fact, you're a boy)?
30 comments:
I would have been James but after 3 girls my dad gave up and got a dog called Jamie. I was once told that they wrote possible names on pieces of paper and let my older (3 year old) sister pick one but I'm not sure if this is true.
I've wondered, but never asked. I'm fairly certain though the names were indicative to the '70s and having older siblings in their teens. "Dawn" seemed to be popular for that era.
(shhh. Don't tell anyone...)
Jocelyn was a contender for awhile, but if I'd been born on time I would have been named Emily, a very common choice in 1971. Also, I would have been a Pisces. Instead I was three weeks late and an Aries with a much less common name, more typical of my parents' generation.
My parents are very good at changing their mind on names. My sister was going to have her eventual name until she was also late, making the name seem excessively seasonal. She was Claire briefly before my father vetoed it as an "old lady's name" and they went back to the seasonal name. She's the only one of us to have a first name as a middle name, which my mother insisted on as a back-up plan.
i was apparently going to be Kirk, since i was supposed to be a boy. the unexpected girl was going to be Bronwen, but my dad decided it was "too heavy" and they went with the cuter, blander Bonnie instead. i've always grieved this a little...they could have named me Bronwen and called me Bonnie on an everyday basis instead...but no.
then my father up and ran off with Bonnie their eighteen year old babysitter, and so for the past 34 years i've had a stepmother with the same name. go figure.
i was going to be aimee renee, but my eyes were too sad.
Rachel or Joshua.
If that doesn't give you a sense of my ethnicity (though that's only a fraction of it; I am a veritable rainbow of ethnicities, some warring with one another), I don't know what would...
I was to be Emily until my cousin's cousin was born and given that name 6 weeks before I came along. Instead, I share a very common 70's baby name with the daughter of one of our former presidents.
If I had been a boy, I think I would have been given the name they eventually gave my little brother, which was also fairly common in the 70s. We both grew up being called by our first and last names in school because of the half dozen other kids in our class with the same first names.
If I'd been a boy- Roger. No offense to any Rogers out there, but I'm glad to have been a girl.
Lori is so 60-70's and seems to have been left in those decades. However, my name is actually short for Lorraine, which makes me a little more unique, and explains the spelling.
Recently though, I saw "Lori" used as a monogramming example in Pottery Barn Teen. I thought to myself, "It's making a comeback!"
When I asked my mom about this said she "just knew" I'd be a girl, thus there was no boys name. My brother would have been Leonie had he been a girl, or any of the younger siblings, but I remained the only girl, so no Leonie. All my brothers have a middle name, and I don't. I used to think this was because dad has a middle name and mom doesn't, but perhaps this is silly. All our names are relatively uncommon so the second name was not necessary to distinguish us from other kids with the same name.
My mother wanted to name me "Fern". My father hated the name. Hated it. Instead, they gave me the "old lady's name", which I happen to like quite a bit.
I was going to be Kelly, but then my aunt and uncle got a golden retriever and named it Kelly. My mom never really got over that, I think. She still brings it up every once in a while. Instead, they named me after my great aunt (who is not Rita). She was my grandmother's older sister and a very cool lady, from what I've heard. I know very few people who share my name and, if they do, it is usually short for something else. I'm the only one I know who isn't really named something else. (man, it get confusing when you use pseudonyms!)
I guess they didn't find out ahead of time whether I would be a boy or a girl but prepared names for both. For years, my mom told me the story of how, when they called my older brother (who was three at the time) and told him he had a new sister, he cried. I only recently found out that this was because they had been telling him he was getting a brother, not because he hated me at birth, as I had previously believed.
I was nearly called Abigail. My Mum loved it but my Dad hated it!
Would have been quite appropriate as they could then have called me gabby abby!
Jennifer Marie, if I was born fair like my mother. But I was dark haired, eyed, and skinned.
My parents intended to name me Jennifer...like, half of the other baby girls born in the early 1970s. (Because all our moms loved the movie "Love Story".)
A few days before I was born, there was an article in the paper that 7 baby girls had been born a x hospital on x day, and ALL of them were named Jennifer. My parents decided to change their minds at that point. My father voted for Sasha. My mother voted for Gretchen. My mother won.
Gretchen
My mom wanted to name me Valerie, my dad-- after some ancient Greek goddess (I forget which). So I remained nameless for something like a month, and was eventually named Julia, as suggested by my grandmother who also pointed out that both of my parents' birthdays and their anniversary are in July, and that I was nearly born that month as well. 8 years later my sister was also born in July, and I then proceeded to spare her from the name she is very grateful I spared her from :).
My dad wanted my brother to be named "Tony Beretta." Really. My mom didn't so when she was asleep he filled out the birth certificate. When she awoke she sent him home to get some rest. While he was gone she called the nurse and had her bring the birth certificate back and change it.
My dad called him Tony Beretta for three months.
I was supposed to be Ryan Patrick if a boy and Rosemary Ellen if a girl. The Rosemary Ellen was after my two grandmothers - Mary Rosita and Mary Ellen. When the nurse asked my parents what to put on the birth certificate, my mom said Rosemary Ellen. And my dad replied that he really didn't like that name. After much deliberation, I was named Renae with the female version of my dad's name as a middle name. I am glad that my dad spoke up.
Renae
if i had been a boy, i would have been robert, after my dad. actually, with all due respect to robertas everywhere, i'm lucky not to have been a roberta. my father's oldest sister, whose middle name was roberta, talked him out of it.
lawmommy, my son would have been gretchen had his gonads rested a bit higher - lovely name. :)
Mum was certain I was a boy, in which case I was Jason Kane.
After my birth I had no name for 2 weeks, they vacillated between Samantha and Tabitha (yup, guess what my Mum's fave early 70's show was!) - then eventually settled on the name I have, which is nothing like the above names, but an unusual spelling of what would otherwise be a fairly mundane name...
I would have been Jeremiah, if a boy.
My mother wanted Siobhan for a girl, but my father's jokes about the name while I was in utero convinced her it wouldn't work. (He kept saying "sheboom" rather than Siobhan.) I was born a month early and thus there was no girl's name selected. At some point after I was born and my mother was still in hospital, a nurse came in and asked my mother what my name was. Susan (her mother's name) just popped into her head, and she said "Susan." So that was my name.
Which would be all well and good if the next line in the story was always "and I never liked that name, so isn't it strange that it's what I picked?)
Go figure.
My parents were going to name my sister my name, but when she was born my father said "No, this isn't my (Basil), this is Lara." He had watched a movie with a heroine with that name when my mother was pregnant. She did, however, retain the middle name that was intended for her, Marie. Apparently when I was born it was clear to him that I was indeed (Basil), but the middle name they gave me was, I believe, the name I would have received if I had been a boy (which, as it so happens, is very similar to Bean). A year later when my brother was born he was named Rhymes-with-Bean as well.
I had to post after seeing Bonnie's comment, as I was also going to be name Bronwyn. However, just before I arrived, they heard of acquaintances who gave that name to their daughter, so they decided it was no longer unique. (In the end they gave me the very pedestrian name of 'Ann', so I guess uniqueness was not their utmost priority, after all.) They kept Bronwyn as my middle name, and I liked it enough to use it as my online tag.
My name would have been Rusty if I were a boy.
I am so glad that I am a girl.
I find these fascinating. I really like Rita and Caro's dog stories and I can't figure out why it never occured to me that "Bon" might be a nickname.
I was called 'Marta', after a relative of my mother who she loved dearly, hoping that the name would bring me some of the nice traits of that relative. At the very least, it hasn't brought me any of the bad luck in life that that relative had.
I would have been Eric if I had been a boy. Why I don't know.
My mom liked Kate but didn't know anyone personally with that name (unlike Katherine--she knew several). I've spent my life explaining that Kate isn't short for anything; once I married and changed my name (from a 3 syllable last name to a 1 syllable last name) I wished it were Katherine (or, rather, Katharine, a la Hepburn).
If I had been a boy, I would have been named Teilhard, after the French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. Ooof.
I was going to be Luke if I was a boy in December 1976 -- just before Star Wars came out.
My mother used to tease me saying "We could have named you Dorcas!" Ahh... another good biblical name!
Lawrence.
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