Who were you named after?

245

Comments

  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    My mum claimed that my name was popular when I was born, though I only ever met one other girl with the same name as I was growing up. I was going to be called Patricia, because I was due on St. Patrick's Day, but I was a day late.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Shipmate
    edited March 3
    Annoyingly, for someone whose main hobby is genealogy, I wasn't named after anyone. My parents chose a name which they thought was a bit "different." Unfortunately lots of other parents were thinking the same thing, and it was already in the "Top Ten" by the time I was named. It peaked two years later. My parents didn't see any need to give me a middle name.

    I like my name and, like Firenze, feel that it is my name, even though it is also simultaneously the name of lots of my contemporaries. It is only a matter of time before it becomes an "old lady" name, as it hasn't had a second wave of popularity.

    I went the other way with my children - I gave them all first names which had been popular for the entire C20th and couldn't be pinned down to a specific date. They also got two family names as middle names each.

    Oddly enough I thought I had given my daughter a "strong" name, with a bit of an Edwardian / suffragette / WWI munitions factory worker vibe. The general consensus seems to be that hers is a pretty, girly name, with an Edwardian/ big hats / flounces vibe. I guess people's mental picture of "early C20th women" varies!
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    It always makes me giggle that in about 50 years' time there are going to be a lot of little old ladies called Kylie!
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Not to mention little old men called Indiana
  • Sparrow wrote: »
    It always makes me giggle that in about 50 years' time there are going to be a lot of little old ladies called Kylie!

    I was at a graduation ceremony at which one of the PhDs was called Kylie. I felt very old realising that the Kylies were that age already.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Eigon wrote: »
    My mum claimed that my name was popular when I was born, though I only ever met one other girl with the same name as I was growing up. I was going to be called Patricia, because I was due on St. Patrick's Day, but I was a day late.

    Ooh. You could have been Cyrilla or Cyrille.
  • My name was made up by my grandmother, who intended to call my mother that name. My grandfather would not allow any child of his to be baptised with a made up name, or by a Scots name in an English church, hence my uncle's baptismal name is the English version of what everyone calls him. My mother then ended up in a private girls' school with 5 classmates with the same name out of 16 and vowed she wasn't doing that to her children. Hence I got lumbered with the made up name, not helped with a version of my mother's surname, which is a Scots boys name as a middle name. My next sisters down were both given names in the top 5 the years of their birth.

    Permanently spelling my name and correcting those who get it wrong is wearing, but not something I haven't had to put up with since forever. Secondary school was interesting when I was put on roll as a boy and took 2 years to come off the PE and other registers.

    These days it's not unique, but comes from different directions, there are versions in Hindi/Urdu, Gaelic and Welsh - some are feminine, others masculine.

    My daughter complains about her name but it's Greek mythological, not unknown, the same in many languages - but around when she was named one of the soaps introduced a character with the same name.
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    While I am 100% in favour of people protecting the privacy of their real-life identity aboard Ship, I am having the wildest time imagining some of the names people have based on the information given -- especially your "made up name," @Curiosity killed . Currently I am calling you Athraxillia in my head.
  • orfeo wrote: »
    I was deliberately not named after anyone.

    Me too. My parents didn't want any arguments about whose part of the family got "their" name used, so chose a name that none of my relatives have. Also why I don't have middle names.
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    My first name came from nowhere - I can't actually remember the inspiration, but the Essex habit of dropping aitches does allow me to make dubious puns about walls. My middle name is for my maternal grandfather, and is quite dull.
  • Trudy wrote: »
    While I am 100% in favour of people protecting the privacy of their real-life identity aboard Ship, I am having the wildest time imagining some of the names people have based on the information given -- especially your "made up name," @Curiosity killed . Currently I am calling you Athraxillia in my head.
    Oh, they managed all that with a monosyllabic name! As far as I know, no x in Gaelic or Hindi/Urdu.

  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Shipmate
    edited March 3
    My mother-in-law had a made up name. Her parents eschewed the Scottish Highland practise of adding an "ina" to a male name and added an "inda" instead. It's now also one of my daughter's middle names.

    My mother-in-law didn't like it as a first name because she had to keep spelling it out, but I love it as a middle name. It is almost unique in Scotland, but it doesn't sound made up because there are so many "inda" names - Belinda, Rosalinda, Lucinda etc. No-one has ever commented that it sounds unusual.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Well, I was going to be called after my maternal grandmother, Alice. My mum used to talk about how she had planned to call a daughter "Alison" if she ever had one, after her mother. However, her sister had a girl first and nicked the name so she had to think again. :lol: After a couple of other options I ended up being called after my paternal grandmother and I love the name and have always been glad it's mine. Said grandmother died long before I was born and I remember a distinctly odd moment seeing a picture of her grave which had my name on it. :flushed:

  • Permanently spelling my name and correcting those who get it wrong is wearing, but not something I haven't had to put up with since forever. Secondary school was interesting when I was put on roll as a boy and took 2 years to come off the PE and other registers.
    My long haired eldest son Elijah had an asthma attack on holiday in Wales when he was 11, and he was airlifted to the local hospital whilst my husband and I drove there. When I arrived I discovered he was a girl called Eliza. The casualty doctor had obviously not carried out a very thorough examination.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited March 3
    :lol:

    I was apparently supposed to be a boy named David, so there's that. Not sure why--there are no Davids in our family. I rather like the combo name I've got right now--one name apparently Norwegian and the other Vietnamese. With a little Hebrew in the middle. Though the influence of the last name means that the first name gets taken for some rare Asian thing all the time.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    My name apparently shows up about every 20 years for a few years and then disappears again. Sure enough, I know people with my first name that are 50, 30, and 10.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    Galilit wrote: »
    My middle name "Judith" ...
    My entire life people have thought my actual name is Judith, but it's not. *Looking at you Marsha, on the yearbook committee, who changed my name in our senior yearbook.*
  • I get that too occasionally. WHY do people think they can just assume, instead of asking...
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    I get that too occasionally. WHY do people think they can just assume, instead of asking...
    On that theme, though a slightly different take, one of my pet irritations is people who shorten (or lengthen) one's name without permission. I worked with someone who did this - my real name is not easily shortened, but she managed to do it, despite my repeated requests for her not to. In the team was a Jane whom she called "Janey", a Nigel she called "Nigey" and a Gill she called "Gilly Willy." :flushed:

    One of the names I might have been called was Jessica, which I think is lovely but I know I'd have spent my life correcting people who wanted to call me Jessie or Jess. I think people should do you the courtesy of asking what you like to be called and then sticking to it.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    I get that too occasionally. WHY do people think they can just assume, instead of asking...
    I get the flip-side version of it. My given name is one that is regularly shortened to a nickname, but there are a number of nicknames from which to choose. The one I go by isn’t the most common nickname for my given name (though it’s hardly unheard of either). I regularly have complete strangers who see my given name try to be friendly by going with a nickname, but inevitably they go with the wrong one.

  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited March 3
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    My given name is one that is regularly shortened to a nickname, but there are a number of nicknames from which to choose. The one I go by isn’t the most common nickname for my given name (though it’s hardly unheard of either). I regularly have complete strangers who see my given name try to be friendly by going with a nickname, but inevitably they go with the wrong one.

    Given that I work with a lot of middle aged white American men, I work with a lot of Roberts. Some call themselves Rob, some call themselves Bob, and some call themselves Robert, and some of each group hate it when people pick the wrong name to call them.

    Plus it's confusing - if you have, as I sometimes have, a meeting featuring two Bobs, a Rob, and a Robert, then having someone miscalling people just sews confusion.

    ETA - Oh, plus at least one Rob who is just a Rob, and no kind of Robert at all.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    My given name is one that is regularly shortened to a nickname, but there are a number of nicknames from which to choose. The one I go by isn’t the most common nickname for my given name (though it’s hardly unheard of either). I regularly have complete strangers who see my given name try to be friendly by going with a nickname, but inevitably they go with the wrong one.

    Given that I work with a lot of middle aged white American men, I work with a lot of Roberts. Some call themselves Rob, some call themselves Bob, and some call themselves Robert, and some of each group hate it when people pick the wrong name to call them.
    Speaking only for myself, I don’t hate it per se that people pick the wrong one. I just don’t see the need to assume. I find it ironic that in an effort to seem friendly and on a first name basis—I’m talking about people like sales people and bank tellers, not co-workers whose names I should know and who should know mine—they make an assumption that has the exact opposite effect.

    It’s really not that hard to (1) pay attention to how someone introduces him- or herself, or (2) ask “what do you prefer to be called?”

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Speaking only for myself, I don’t hate it per se that people pick the wrong one. I just don’t see the need to assume. I find it ironic that in an effort to seem friendly and on a first name basis—I’m talking about people like sales people and bank tellers, not co-workers whose names I should know and who should know mine—they make an assumption that has the exact opposite effect.

    You've just hit very close to one of my personal pet hates, which I've had happen several times. I'm in some shop or other, I have a perfectly sensible discussion with one of the people that works in the shop, decide what I'm going to buy, hand over my credit card, and then the shop worker reads the name on my card, and returns it with a big smile, saying "thank you, Leo!"

    Umm, what? At what point in this discussion did we become on first name terms? At what point did we even introduce ourselves? You're the man in the shop, I'm the customer - I'll call you "sir" and you can call me "sir".

    (I also don't think that the fact that you're wearing a badge that says "Hello, my name is Bob" or whatever gives me the right to address you as Bob. It gives me the ability to refer to you as Bob, should I need to mention you in conversation with one of your colleagues, but I wouldn't presume to use your given name just because it was stuck to your shirt.)
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    You and me both, Mr. Cniht. You and me both.

  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    Reminds me of my friend Jocasta: addressed in a shop You don't mind if I call you Jocasta? she gave a basilisk stare and replied You may call me Mrs St****rd-A***s.
  • I don't mind if someone spells or pronounces my name wrong, but the people who take the wholly unnecessary step of altering my name completely--when they've been introduced to me in my regular form--gah. And I've had to run interference for a friend for years when mutual acquaintances casually refer to her as "Deb," which she loathes with the passion of a thousand burning suns. If you don't know a person well enough to know their preferred nickname (if any), you don't know them well enough to take liberties. I would almost say, to call them anything but Sir or Ma'am.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited March 4
    I If you don't know a person well enough to know their preferred nickname (if any), you don't know them well enough to take liberties. I would almost say, to call them anything but Sir or Ma'am.
    Or Mr./Ms. Surname. (Or Dr. or whatever else might be appropriate.)

  • cgichardcgichard Shipmate
    There are two ways of spelling my single-syllable first name, but the other one must be more common, as people will still respond with the wrong one to an email which I have signed with the correct version.

    As for mis-spelling and mis-pronouncing of surnames, that's another minefield.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I get that too occasionally. WHY do people think they can just assume, instead of asking...
    I get the flip-side version of it. My given name is one that is regularly shortened to a nickname, but there are a number of nicknames from which to choose. The one I go by isn’t the most common nickname for my given name (though it’s hardly unheard of either). I regularly have complete strangers who see my given name try to be friendly by going with a nickname, but inevitably they go with the wrong one.

    Is that nickname or Nick name?
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    cgichard, Macarius has a first name that can be spelt 2 ways, one more common than the other. It is very, very frequent that people ‘correct’ the spelling for him, even when quite clearly typed or printed - he gets spell-checked. The assumption is that he doesn’t know how to spell his own name.

    On the digression about the shortening of names, I have noticed that there often comes a period in a man’s life - perhaps around the early/mid fifties - when Sams become Samuels and Daves become Davids. I find it enormously difficult when someone you’ve known for 20 years suddenly lengthens their name. They begin to be known as something along the lines of ‘Mike-ike-chael’. Is it just me?

    MMM
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Speaking only for myself, I don’t hate it per se that people pick the wrong one. I just don’t see the need to assume. I find it ironic that in an effort to seem friendly and on a first name basis—I’m talking about people like sales people and bank tellers, not co-workers whose names I should know and who should know mine—they make an assumption that has the exact opposite effect.

    You've just hit very close to one of my personal pet hates, which I've had happen several times. I'm in some shop or other, I have a perfectly sensible discussion with one of the people that works in the shop, decide what I'm going to buy, hand over my credit card, and then the shop worker reads the name on my card, and returns it with a big smile, saying "thank you, Leo!"

    Umm, what? At what point in this discussion did we become on first name terms? At what point did we even introduce ourselves? You're the man in the shop, I'm the customer - I'll call you "sir" and you can call me "sir".

    (I also don't think that the fact that you're wearing a badge that says "Hello, my name is Bob" or whatever gives me the right to address you as Bob. It gives me the ability to refer to you as Bob, should I need to mention you in conversation with one of your colleagues, but I wouldn't presume to use your given name just because it was stuck to your shirt.)

    To be fair, I hate being called "sir". I'm not too keen on "Mr T" either (the T being my actual surname, not a reference to the A Team).
  • There's a reason I only have initials on my bank card.
  • Fawkes CatFawkes Cat Shipmate
    edited March 4
    There's a reason I only have initials on my bank card.

    I must assume that you have a bank that is willing to work with you.

    Accepting that I have never insisted on the form of my name on a card, but I have a wallet full of debit and credit cards from various issuers, and given that my full name is Fawkes The Cat, my name is shown as

    Fawkes Cat
    Fawkes T Cat
    Mr Fawkes T Cat
    Mr F T Cat

    ....and so on.
  • I have three given names, the first a neutral one, the other two from my grandfathers. My mother's rationale was that she was not going to give either side of the family preference. My first name has three possible spellings, mine being the most traditional. It amazes me how many people whom I have known or corresponded with for many years continue to use one of the alternative spellings.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    MMM wrote: »
    On the digression about the shortening of names, I have noticed that there often comes a period in a man’s life - perhaps around the early/mid fifties - when Sams become Samuels and Daves become Davids. I find it enormously difficult when someone you’ve known for 20 years suddenly lengthens their name. They begin to be known as something along the lines of ‘Mike-ike-chael’. Is it just me?

    No, not just you; not only in midlife and not only men, in my experience. We had someone start volunteering at work who was a friend of one of the team and we were introduced to him by his shortened name. He was then taken on as staff and asked at that point what he preferred to be called. It turned out he preferred his full name and we all had to work quite hard to make that adjustment.

    I have two friends I've known since university days, one who was always Liz but now prefers Elizabeth and I usually end up remembering partway through talking to her and addressing her as Lizabeth. The other, a Phyllida, was always known as Phil and wanted to change in midlife to Pippa. It was, I think, unsuccessful as the last time we spoke about it she said she answers to anything!
  • @Fawkes Cat it's in the format Ms C X Y Killed. It does stop overfamiliar shop workers from mispronouncing my first name. And garners me letters addressed to Dear C X Y, which amuse me.

    One of the charities I am emailed by obviously updated their database at some point and whoever inputted my name decided to correct it to a recognised two syllable name. With the result that I deleted all emails on sight until I got a questionnaire asking why I was no longer responding to them, to which I irritatedly told them.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    My husband has an unusual middle name. He told me it was the Scottish version of a fairly common if somewhat old fashioned first name. His mother also mentioned it was in honour of a grand or great grandfather and seemed to imply that they were Scottish. When his sister researched the family tree she discovered it was a common surname in the bit of Norfolk the family originated from, that morphed into a first name sometime in the nineteenth century. I think I found it more interesting than my husband did.
  • Mr RoS has two given names, the first after his paternal grandfather, which was not used as he was called by a diminutive of his second name throughout his childhood.
    He introduced himself to me by his full second name, and that is what he has been called by anyone who he met through or with me.
    He was known by the early diminutive by all his parents friends. Most of them are long gone, but the name has lingered at the sailing club he joined as a boy.
    There are two common one syllable abbreviations to the name I know him by, and some people he has met socially in adult life use one or the other in preference to the full version.

    At one point he was receiving paycheques in his 'real' first name as well as cheques in the name he was known by, and banks started to reject one or the other, so he decided that he would use his first name in 'official' situations.

    So, back in the day when people communicated by telephone, I could tell when or where a caller knew him from by whichever of the five versions of his name they asked for.
    If they asked for Mr X it was probably someone selling something.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I have only the initial of my first name on my bank card too (with full surname) - no idea why, as I didn't particularly ask for that.

    I remember as a teenager, when I had a Saturday job in Sainsbury's and we were given name badges after I'd been there a couple of months, one customer called me by my name. Then my boss, an Eastern European woman (which I mention as I imagine different cultures may have different attitudes towards such things) said to me with enthusiasm 'Did you notice, he called you by your name? It's because it's on your badge - that's really nice, isn't it! Customers can call us our names. Isn't it nice!' I said 'Er... yes,' rather doubtfully. I found it weird, as I didn't know him, but had no strong feelings about it. I found it more disconcerting when I was in Canada, and when I went into a shop, shop assistants would approach me and say 'Hi, how are you?' - because in the UK, I was used to that question only being asked by people who knew me, so I would wonder frantically who this person was and where I'd met them before.

    As for who I was named after, when my dad had done training for his job, there was a young woman in the class with my name and he liked the name and liked the woman (not in a romantic way - just enjoyed her company and personality). A bit random, I guess. My mother had wanted to call me Rachel, because she wanted us to have biblical/religious names, but I guess my (non-religious) dad won that decision. My sister, born two years later, got the name of a Christian author, and my youngest sister got a name that is both in the Bible and in a TV series that my dad liked.

    Something I remember is that I was always the only kid in my Sunday School class without a biblical name - we moved house a lot, but it was the same everywhere. Baptist churches, generally - might be different in other denominations, but Sunday School classes were always full of Rachels, Rebeccas, Sarahs, Hannahs, Ruths - and Peters, James, Andrews, Stephens and Johns for the boys. I would go through all the names in my head, trying in vain to find one that wasn't in the Bible. At one church there was a kid called Mercy - the only non-white kid in the class - but even though that's not the name of a biblical character, it still seemed pretty firmly a biblical name!
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    I'd love to know why so many antipodean cricketers of late have been named Mitchell - Johnson, Santner, Starc, Marsh, McClenaghan - I'd guess a TV program in the 1980s?
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    Bro James - when I looked up the saints for my actual birthdate, I was very glad mum only knew the popular ones! Another possibility was St Salvador of Horta!
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    My name has a long version, and shortened version, and a very shortened version, which I hate. If anyone goes monosyllabic on me, I explain very nicely I would prefer them not to, so they don't. I remember that one of the reasons I did not like the headmistress who announced that I would not get a prize because I could not read (mumble, mumble you're the teacher, whose fault is that?) was that she used the usual short form, which was only for my friends, and she, of whom I had nightmares, was definitely not in that group. I have no middle name.
    My mother was partly named after her mother, who was Bertha Elizabeth. Mum was Bertha Margaret, but always went by Margaret, or Moggie. It took a while to get the hospital to not use her first name.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    My name can be shortened, but I hate it being done. If someone used the shortened form to try and get my attention, I ignore them.
  • There's a reason I only have initials on my bank card.

    Mrs C has a bank card with her name spelled wrong. We tried for a couple of years to get them to correct it. They write to her with the correct spelling of her name, but the card contains a different spelling of the name. After they, three times, just sent another card with the same spelling, we gave up.
  • Ethne AlbaEthne Alba Shipmate
    Having a rather old fashioned name, I just stopped using it when I went to college. From then on out I was known by the perfectly acceptable shortened version.

    Just over ten years ago I started a new job, where two others already went by the same name! Three of us in a small setting would have caused utter confusion, so I slightly lengthened the shortened version.

    Had my original name been something special, I might have minded all the changing. But all my parents could say was that they ‘quite liked’ the name.


    It is a bit odd though, the last time a DBS ( clearance) was done there were any number of variations of my name. Three surnames. Three first names.

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I get that too occasionally. WHY do people think they can just assume, instead of asking...
    I get the flip-side version of it. My given name is one that is regularly shortened to a nickname, but there are a number of nicknames from which to choose. The one I go by isn’t the most common nickname for my given name (though it’s hardly unheard of either). I regularly have complete strangers who see my given name try to be friendly by going with a nickname, but inevitably they go with the wrong one.

    Is that nickname or Nick name?
    :lol:

  • I knew a guy at secondary school who was only ever known by a derivation of of his surname even among teachers. If a new teacher insisted on calling him by one of his given names he would answer to "Robin" (his middle name). Woe betide the person who dared to call him by his first name (James). Teacher or not, you'd get mouthful from him.
  • I have a friend who moved out of the area, I had known her all my life as Lenny, Her real name is Lanette. She told me the story of how she started being called Lenny and that she hated it so when she moved she started using Lynn as her name, which she said is now her preferred name. Fine I will work on always now calling her Lynn. I do so 90% of the time. Yet she still sends me cards, emails, and letters all signed Lenny?
  • She may do so because she thinks you won't remember the new name, having known her for so long otherwise. I tend to send a multitude of identifiers in my letters, emails, etc. to people I think might have trouble placing me, either because of name change or because we no longer see each other often. And sometimes I gauge it wrong, and the person is perfectly aware of me under my new circumstances!
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    A lady that I used to work with always called her husband by his family name, which since they married, was also her last name. It was the first time I ran into that.

    I rather enjoyed that Temperance Brennen always called her partner and later husband Booth on the TV show "Bones" instead of Seely, and he called her Bones. Her dad called her Tempie or Temperance, her best friend called her Sweetie, and everyone else seemed to call her Dr. Brennen, even her boss.
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