Okay I can share one thing now.

[InsaneCdn]

If you pick Michele, may I recommend one L. Less common, more sophisticated

... which is similar to the curse my Mom gave me for a name... it's common, but spelled "different"... and every single day of my life (at least since starting school), I have to SPELL it. Because nobody gets it right. It's an albatross, seriously.

Names. Why can't we all just be numbers, and make things simple? Oh. Right. We don't REMEMBER numbers. At least, not THAT many numbers. And was it 7988484 who just walked by, or was it 7988448? We thought names were bad?

Just be glad you're the granny and not the Mom! We can't fault you for whatever name THEY choose (even if you have some influence, it's still "their" fault).

 

[Mom2oddson]

My Cousin and his wife wanted to name their daughter have either their mothers or grandmothers. They were having trouble picking which names to use....

Elisabeth
Margaret
Mary
Angnus

They ended up using the first initials in each name.... and Emma was born. I thought that was an interesting way to honor all the ladies in the family.

easy child had no choice in his first name. It's a tradition since my Great Great Grandfather. At least one member of each generation has it (or the female version of it) as either a first or middle name. And easy child knows that he has to carry on that same tradition.

 

[AnnieO]

LOL I know someone who had a Margaret and an Ann... Megan!

husband's dad's family used the father's first name as the son's middle name. father in law missed this one, and husband doesn't have father in law's first name as his middle. THANK HEAVENS.

 

[Star*]

I LOVE the first initial in every Grandmas & Moms name - but if we did that? I think her name it wouldn't make sense. I have decided that whatever they choose - is up to them - but Dude said he's not fond of the name Addison, HOWEVER - he feels (and I thought this was pretty mature of him) That if SHE is going to be the one carrying it, throwing up, getting huge, getting stretch marks - and mood swings that could kill him? Then "OF COURSE he likes her first pick of a name - Addison." and then added "But I do like her middle name Grace - I think I'll call her Gracie Mom."

I'm not telling anyone but that was one of the names I had picked for a girl. lol. -

And as far as Michelle? Tis true - some Michele's spell their name in a sophisticated name with one L, but if you know one that's got a little HECK to raise? Two LL's Fits rather nicely!

Where is 1 L anyway? Hugs & Love - 2L's

 

[AnnieO]

Uck. Mine would be VEMMAS. Ugh ugh ugh.

 

[DammitJanet]

Everyone in my family was willing to name the kids to honor the paternal sides. Never MY side. That is something that really got me. I thought for a little bit that Mandy was trying to find a name that was in the JAN family but she gave up on that one. We found one in a baby book Janessa which meant happy, healthy, lively child and I thought that was very cute. I am still hoping that they have one more and its a boy because Cory has promised me it will be Scott. I will steal that child from them. Grandchildren are supposed to have some form of grandmothers maiden names. Im still not sure why everyone thinks its so odd that my middle name is Scott. That was my Grandparents last name..hence my mothers maiden name. My first name came from JFK's personal doctor.

 

[DDD]

Hmmm...Janet. Scott was my grandmother's name and it has been used as the middle name for four of the grandchildren and we used it as the middle name of difficult child#2. My maiden name is the first name of one of my grands. Ironically she is the one that I only see at Thanksgiving. I like family names incorporated. Maybe we're related. DDD

 

[DammitJanet]

DDD...where is your family from? Scott is my grandfathers family name and I know where his family is from. My grandmother is the one I have no earthly clue. I really need to order my mothers BC so I can get my grandmothers maiden name and work backwards from there.

 

[trinityroyal]

Speaking of names...........

Demetri Octavian

Nithilsin Octavian

[snip] And no, neither boy is referred to by their given names, they go by nicknames that have nothing to do with the names on their birth certificates.

Oh Hound. You brought back some great memories from my first job. I worked as a file clerk / odd-job-jill in a paediatrician's office, and used to get such a kick out of the names. You could tell which singers and tv shows were popular by the waves of Tiffanys or Britneys, etc.

My favourite name ever (And I still wonder whether her parents were cruel or just clueless) was Golden Rule. But there were a LOT of doozies.

A few other favourites, from my family:

Uncle George, who was always called by his middle name: Almond. But, he was always a bit of a nut.
Auntie Rajpattie, known as Pinkie. No one's sure why.
Uncle Paw Paw (you know, like the fruit).

And the best ones, Uncle Buzzy, Uncle Winky and Auntie Dewdrop. No one remembers what their given names are. Oh, and Uncle Buzzy is married to Auntie Jim. People who don't know them get very confused as to who's the boy and who's the girl.

I am grateful that when my parents finally stopped arguing over what to name me (I was Baby Nameless for 3 weeks while they fought), they agreed on something that I'm very happy with, rather than the 2 horrible names they were scrapping over. Whew.

Grammy Star, whatever they choose to name your little grandbaby, I'm sure she'll be a gem. (In fact, they could name her after my Auntie Gem)

 

[Hound dog]

mother in law explained to me that taking on the women's maiden names into the family bank of names (as in making it a middle name ect) was a way of keeping track of family lines long ago. Now how accurate that is, I dunno. My family never did it. It hasn't been carried on so far as I know within the great grands names or the great great grand. So far it's only been first names they've added in. I believe the trend to do this is dying out quickly. I think that is sad, as those folks were right, it was an easy way to keep track of linage.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Or we could go to the Old Nordic tradition... where the last name changes with every generation... and where the sons took the father's name and the daughters took the mother's name. (and yes it gets really confusing)

 

[susiestar]

My dad taught in some rough neighborhoods and had kids with some interesting names. Thaddus Hall XXXXX - his mom was on medications when they asked the name and she thought they asked f she was going to have another. He was her 6th or 7th and she was done with having kids. He also had brothers named Lemonjello and Orangejello XXXX, pronounced Le-MON-jello all run together into one word and or-ANG-ello all run together as one word. Names went downhill from there.

When I was in 6thgrade my mom didn't stop me from reading a book that was written by an ER doctor about what he experienced as he worked in an ER in an inner city area. Many women would come into the ER in labor after never having seen a doctor for prenatal care or not having had much prenatal care.. The docs were really mean in general in this book, pretty much overworked to the bone and sick of all the things they saw that showed how awful people could be to themselves and each other. Lots of those babies were delivered in the ER. It was very common for the moms to ask the doctor who helped end their pain what their name was to name the baby after them, or what the doctor thought would be a good name for a baby.

The author was pretty disgusted about suggested names because in that area there were a lot of kids named Gonorrhea or CHlamydia, but even more named things like Vagina, Vaginosis, Iudia (I remember the pronunciation was eye-YOU-de-ah and it just seemed awful to me), Syphillus and Papilloma. One lady thought she named her kid after that famous designer of women's clothing, Herpes.

The book made a real impact because we were learning about the meaning of names and the significance of them in religion class at the time. I got three detentions for asking what God would do if you got to heaven but had one of those names. I got out of the detentions by bringing in the book to prove I didn't make it up and asking if I needed to bring my mom in to say she knew I was reading the book.