Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

What’s in a Name?

                    Felixthecat

Is there a story behind your name?

I was named after a woman who had a dance exercise show in the 50s. My Mother liked to dance.

French Husband has a very typical name from Bretagne. Until recently, in France, first names were by region. Acceptable names of the region were listed at the City Hall. That is why the French have French names, verse names like Apple, Peach, Banana-Hanna… French names were controlled: Pierre, Stephan, Jean, Michelle, Francoise, or Nicole…

It is highly unusual to know a French person older than twenty named something like: Cherry, or Paris, or Corey, or Zane…

With our first child, French Husband let me pick out the name. Chelsea is a very hard name to say in French. French Husband had to go to the city hall and request permission to name our daughter Chelsea. When I was pregnant with our second child I asked French Husband if he had a boy's name that he liked. He did. He opened his wallet and took out a small piece of paper which had six names written on it.

The French names:

1) Albert, after his great-Grandfather. I balked…and said, "Honey, even though your family's silver and linens have "A" for Albert on them, I don't think I could call my baby Albert."

2) Alfred. A poet of something. I cringed.

3) Morgan. I liked that one. But in France it is consider taboo to name a baby with a name that is already in the family. I had a cousin named Morgan. So French husband scratched the name off the list.

4) Quentin. I tried to say it, and instead said a bad bad word. Worse than merde. French husband accused me of saying it badly on purpose. But I couldn't get it right. "Q" and "U" are hard sounds to say in French. Finally, after a great debate French husband realized that our child would probably grow up with a complex, because his American family would be saying a swear word for his child's name.

5) Arthur. Which is pronounced like the Star War character, "R2 D2." Honestly, it sounds just like that. R2 D2.

6) The last name on his list was Felix

"Like the cat?" I screamed! French Husband said he was certain that nobody thought of a cat when they heard the name Felix, and that I was exaggerating. I exaggerate it is true, but everyone thinks of Felix as a cat.

Chelsea named our son Sacha, and that is another story for another day.

What is the story of your name?

photo: A 1920s music program, "Felix le Chat." The banner reads in French: "l'immense succes Amercain." or "One of America's Favorite."

 

I am re-posting this because my newfound friend from Texas is named Lucy. When she married, her husband's last name was: Screws.

Lucy Screws.

 

Comments

74 responses to “What’s in a Name?”

  1. Julie M ~ The Little Red Shop

    I. Yes, “The Cat” always follows Felix in my mind.
    2. I bought a cute dress form the other day and the name Lucy popped into my head…so, that’s what I named her.
    3. My mom said that she always dreamed of having a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. Had my brothers, neither of whom have the bb combo, been born girls, one of them would have been named Julianna. I came along just as my mom had placed her wish…and was named Julie Marie. She said that they had met a sweet little girl with that name.
    4. My dad liked to say that I was named after one of the waitresses from their restaurant…who had big boobs.
    And that is how my French name came to be!
    : )
    Julie M.

    Reply
  2. Julie M ~ The Little Red Shop

    ps The regional name thing is so interesting. Most of my Norman grrrrreat grandfathers were named Guillaume.

    Reply
  3. Jackie

    My name is Jacklynn. Back in 1956 when I was born it was terribly odd to spell it any other way than Jacqueline. I was the 4th girl and my dad’s name is Jack, hence my name.
    How did you mom come up with Zane? That’s a cool, but unusual, name.
    Jackie
    blissfarmantiques

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  4. Kiki

    I love FELIX because it means felicity…. but I would have preferred Quentin! Tell me the American swearword, pllleeeease… I won’t use it but I know a few Quentins in UK!
    I was christened after a favourite aunt of my dad (Kiki is my life long name but not my Christian name); I NEVER used it because it’s bound to entice further questions and only my parents and some ancient aunties even know and even rarer use it. I shortened it to a well known Swiss Author’s world famous children book and I must say that for a long time I did look like that girl!
    Hero Husband has a mostly unpronounceable (except for French people) double name, all the boys got double-barrelled names from the bible.
    I have never heard of anybody called Corey… Where does YOUR name come from?!

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  5. Kiki

    an addition (oh my ever too quick index pushing ENTER before I have even finished my thoughts!)
    I read and noted that your name is after an American Dance Show’s presenter; but was HER name a stage name? THAT was what I wanted to ask you…. 🙂 Sorry for being so pushy!

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  6. Laura @ 52 FLEA

    I was named after my great grandmother and my grandmother!
    Feeling lucky to have been named after them as I knew and loved them both.

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  7. Melissa

    I was named after the Melissas who acted in the Little House On The Prairie. I became a Melissa only because my grandmother didn’t like the name Angelina.
    My daughter on the other hand, is named after my mother, my husband’s aunts and great-grand aunt. Only with different spellings.

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  8. maria

    I named my first daughter Laura after the film noire movie of the same name from the 40’s with dana andrews. Francesca was named after i finished reading the Bridges of Madison County.
    Will tell you the story of naming my son Nicholas another day…:)(inlaws can be infuriating…)

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  9. Paulita

    Paulita, after my grandmother Pauline. My parents found the variation in a baby name book, but I am always asked two things: “Was your father named Paul?” and “How do you spell that?”
    My middle name is Grace after my other grandmother who died two days after I was born.
    My daughter Grace turns 19 today and I was just blogging about her name.

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  10. Ellen at American Homestead

    I was named after my Grandmother Ellen who was called Nellie and my Great-Grandmother Ellen who was called Bon-Bon. My husband’s Nana was also an Ellen but they called her Helen. What did they have against the name Ellen? My nickname has always been Elle.

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  11. Sue K.

    My middle name was my (French Canadian) grandmother’s first name – Demerice. My oldest daughter has the same middle name, as does HER daughter. We all love it.

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  12. meredith

    My Dad washed dishes with a Meredith in college. I’m named after her…she’s Tom Brokaw’s wife!

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  13. Linda P.

    I was born in the last few days of 1949. When I was in grade school, every classroom had its quota of three to five Linda’s. I knew no adult women named Linda, so I couldn’t imagine growing up to be an adult with that name. Even now, when someone tells me their name is Linda, I can pretty well guess that woman’s age within a few years, with a few exceptions.
    I went on a hunt to try to figure out why so many women my age are named Linda. It turns out that film star Linda Darnell appeared in two movies in 1949, the year of my birth, and had films throughout the late 40’s and 50’s. My mother, who was working as a ticket-taker in a small-town movie theater when she met her just-returned-from-the-Navy young husband-to-be, must have seen many of Linda Darnell’s movies.
    I’m about as far from a Linda Darnell type as it’s possible to be!

    Reply
  14. Chris Wittmann

    My dad wanted a boy, so the name “Christopher” was chosen. When I arrived a girl instead, it was changed to Christine. My business’s name (Cats in the Cradle) was so named because we had over 20 stray cats in our care and started the business to help support them. Eventually the number grew to over 30, but now…thankfully…it’s only 6! And yes, I for one always thing of cats when I hear the name Felix…

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  15. anne

    My name was just a back to front name of my mums .. Anne Patricia… (never use Patricia) apparently my dad did want to name me something else but my mum did not like it … she cannot remember what it was and my dad passed away when I was 10… I know it would of been something Maltese .. as he was. I used to pretend my name was something else , like Annabella , or Isabella …
    I feel a bit hard done by really as my sister was named Odette , and she was born after me. Sorry little bit envious .. I knew a little boy called Zane and that was about 28 years ago. My father was called Oscar ..

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  16. Natalie Thiele

    Aunt Catherine, my father’s older sister, told my sister and me that we were named after Dad’s old high school girlfriends, Natalie Jones and Beverly Johnson. Since my sister and I knew she said it to irritate my mother, we never trued to verify whether or not it was true.

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  17. Tracey

    My name was supposed to be Maxine or Coleen. Right up to giving birth to me those were the names my Mom settled on. Then after I was born she said she got very sentimental and named me after my Father instead. Tracey, a nice name but when they split up and my father re-married his new wife named her twin boys after my Dad as well. So I grew up with 4 Traceys in my family.

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  18. Darlene

    I am named after my grandmother. My father named me.

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  19. Penny

    Penelope. The long-suffering kind of Greek odysseys. I am, of course, Greek, and was named after my paternal grandmother. It is a beautiful name, but, well, always mispronounced as I grew up in the fifties in a suburb of Chicago where I can assure you I was the only Penelope around. I was/am called Penny and didn’t meet another until I moved into my dorm room as a freshman in college. Penny and I became fast friends.
    Alas and alack, now everyone, it seems (at least men) can now pronounce my name. I will be forever indebted to Penelope Cruz for clearing that up!

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  20. Irina

    my husband’s name – alfred. he went to a catholic school and the name was giving to him by the church. he lately changed it legally. he also has his chinese name.
    my name means ‘peace’ from greek. my great grand mother said that there should be irina (peace) in every family. i had an aunt called irina and my mom’s sister has a daughter irina (pronounced e-rina).
    my son’s name is illya (илья). it is very hard to pronounce for english speaking people, i don’t like the wrong sounding of it. he was born in the year of the horse, his name is as of illya muromets – the Kievan Rus’ epic hero and it is a very old name:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Muromets
    on his birth my cousin gave him a rocking horse, so he can look like ilya muromets. after 20 years we still have it
    🙂

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  21. marlis

    My mother named me after her girlfriend, how they came up with my middle name is unknown. Marlis is a German derivative of Margaret – so after my mom and grandmother… can’t get any better than that!

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  22. JudyO

    Judy (Judith) was a popular name in the late 40’s. I think perhaps because of Judy Garland. One of my best friends growing up was named Judy. When I first was out of college I taught with three other kindergarten teachers. One was named Judy. When I moved and later taught at another school, the teacher across the hall was named Judy. My husband’s sister is named Judith.
    When I was twelve I wanted to change my name. I would write Corey A—– on my books and papers. I thought of that when I first started reading your blog.

    Reply
  23. waveney

    My name is WAVENEY….. WAVENEY WHITNEY to be exact. I was born in 1946 and oh how I longed to be a Linda, Sue or Nancy. My mother was a captain in the army nursing corp and was stationed in Europe. She apparently knew someone with that name. I have never run across it in my entire life time in the U.S. but shortly after I got a computer I googled it and 50+ hits in Britain, businesses and a river. When we were thhere I found a Waveney Antique Shop sign and found the river. The exact origin is ancient and sketchy. Now that I’m more mature and confident I rather like it. , I did however name my sons though common names, Greg and Peter.

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  24. Tracy

    My mom and a good friend were sitting around in 1956 going over names they liked, as mom was pregnant with me. Her friend said “I always liked the name Tracy” and when my mom heard it she asked if she could use it and did. My dad called me doo-dabber because I would scribble on his papers. He also called me Veronica Blake which was a movie star back in the 30’s or 40’s I’m told, not that I am a beauty of sorts. My best friends family used to call me Trixie and husband liked to call me Pleasure O’Reily when dating. Today I am just Tracy or mom.

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  25. Tracy

    when I was in trouble, my name was always TRACY ANN. makes me cringe even today.

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  26. Tracy

    when i was little i used to pretend my name was Connie.

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  27. Everton Terrace

    I so enjoyed reading all the comments, very interesting. I liked all FH picks for a boy’s name. I almost named my daughter Morgan (she got Meghan instead). My name is Jeanette Marie, very French but oddly enough my mother is from England. She went to school with a girl named Jeanette and she always admired her.

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  28. Jillayne

    Hard to believe names were approved by region! But if the AOC can work for other things…lol!
    When my Grandmother was pregnant she wanted to name the baby Jill if it was a girl, whereas my Grandfather preferred Jayne. My Grandfather was a stubborn man who also had hoped to be the head of the household when he married my Grandmother (he should have known better!).
    She was a master thinker and schemer (in a good way) and eventually came up with “Jillane” by combining the two, as she was desperate for some form of Jill. She had left the “y” out of her combination suggestion so as to have some bargaining room – she wanted the spelling to include the “y” but thought he might be more receptive if he had some involvement… she knew he preferred Jayne to Jane…so she presented her idea, he appeared aghast, mulled on it for a while and decreed he would allow it if it was “Jillayne” instead of “Jillane”.
    They never had a girl!
    And the name waited for me…

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  29. martina

    My father was named by a maiden aunt who had recently read a romance novel. The lead male was Sylvester. Dad jokingly told people he was named after a pussycat.

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  30. Tamara

    I was supposed to be a Kelly or a Kim, whether or not I was a boy or a girl. Well, when my mom gave birth to me, a girl, my parents took one look at me and said…she’s not a Kelly or a Kim — she’s a Tamara! And so I am.

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  31. Bridget

    My Mom, Nellie was named by her father after his Mother-in-law that he loved like his own Mom. And if I would have had a daughter… Nellie would be her name.
    My Mom named me after a little girl redhead girl that she saw at the beach once. The little girls name was “Bridget Denise”. And so that is my name.

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  32. Brenda L from TN

    My mother was named Carolyn but my grandfather (her dad)had a sister named Caroline and he always called her “Caroline” much to my grandmother’s dismay since she and sister didn’t get along…until much later in life. My mother was reading a book in 1942 whose heroine was named “Brenda”. Mother said she never heard that name before and liked it so I became “Brenda”. My dad was in the service and thankfully, when he got home he liked it too; since he suggested naming me after the grandmothers…Lillian and Ida Mae!!!

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  33. Ardi

    Our parents each contributed one of our names. My first, Ardith, was named after my Dad’s little sister who died when she was three of influenza. The middle name was named for my maternal Grandmother, whose middle name was Evelyn, too. The rest of the sisters also had names chosen the same way.

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  34. Kerri

    Kerri Jean – my mother read it in a newspaper, while sitting on the pot. She liked it and that was that.

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  35. Tamra/The Gilded Barn

    My mom and dad had not been married very long and my dad found himself in jail one night (nothing serious but a whole other story) and he said that as he sat in his cell there was a Czechoslovakian gentleman that was brought in and put in the “drunk tank”. He spoke no English but could sing the song “Tammy” (you know by Debbie Rynolds from the old “Tammy” movies?)
    My dad this man had the most beautiful voice he had ever heard and he sang that song “Tammy” over and over. He said that he decided right then that if he ever had a little girl he would name her Tammy. I was known as Tammy as a little girl but use my given name since I was eighteen which is Tamra.
    On a side note: I have a great uncle who went by the name of Dude. We all thought it was his given name but I just found out a few years ago that his given name was Amanda. No one now knows how it came about that he was given a girls name but no wonder he went by “Dude”.

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  36. Victoria Ramos

    My father wanted to name me after his mother – Luisa (Louise). He being of pure Portuguese/catholic stock my name had to be something saintly and his love for his mother was deep. My grandmother had my dad later in life and became a widow when my dad was only 2 years old….so when my parents married, they continued to live with my grandmother for the first 2 years while trying to produce ‘me’.
    I will also note that my grandmother didn’t speak english, worked a hard life in the Canneries… raised rabbits and chickens in the backyard for food and so on. Plus ol’ Luisa was pretty bullheaded and I don’t think she thought kindly of my mom not being Portuguese..(mom was not Portuguese-but at least she was catholic)..old country and all that.
    Needless to say, after two years of living with Luisa, my mom was not going to name me Louise.
    My mother always loved the names Teresa and Bernadette – but in those 2 years of trying to have me her sister and best friend had baby girls and they promptly stole her favorite names.
    So I ended up being called Victoria Louise – mom giving in on my middle name.
    I have 4 younger sisters – and my dad finally won with my middle sister Louise (who is always called LuLu). I think if he had his way we would of all been named Louise.
    I am glad I got Victoria — I just can’t see me as a “Bernie”….. 🙂

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  37. Marilyn

    Oh my Lucy Screws is an awful name to get stuck with, but would give people a smile.
    I don’t know the story of my name, but I find a lot of women in my age group with that name. It is not a name little girl’s are named these days. If people can’t remember my name I just say like Marilyn Monroe and they remember. So maybe the name was popular because of Marilyn Monroe, but I don’t think so.

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  38. Jenna

    Was your dad a Zane Grey fan?
    It was a popular name around the time I was born, I’m sure my parents didn’t want to make waves.

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  39. annette

    Well my Daddy’s family comes from Louisiana and they are French. My Grandpa spoke French but not the kind you speak in France. My Daddy named me Carol Antoinette. The Carol after my Mom and the other was a family name. I’m just glad I didn’t get one of the others which were so bad, Clotiel. When my Mom became lucid after I was born she saw what my Daddy had named me and freaked. So on my birth certificate it is Antoinette scratched out then written in is Annette. My maiden name is Grappe and if you don’t think that was a fun one for everybody to ping on. I hated the first day of school cause I was either Annette Grapee or Crappe.

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  40. Kimberly

    My Mom liked the named Kimberly it’s that simple but my life long nickname has been Kimba. In the 60’s there was a cartoon about Kimba the white lion and since I was born in the 60’s it was meant to be for me! Blessings, Kimba!

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  41. airelle

    my mother gave me her best friends first name. it’s a good, authentic Finnish name. but unfortunately all the women – and I really meen ALL the women called like me are fifteen to thirty years older than I am. there is nobody in Finland my age or younger with my first name, it has totally fallen out of use. so I moved back from France, knowing nobody and went searching for work. of course the employers thought I was twenty years older. I think my poor mum never realised why I had such a hard time finding work. after a while I added my photo on the CV, that helped a little.
    but I’m not complaining, I could have been named after my godmother…

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  42. Catalina

    Catalina was my father’s mother name, and I were the first child in the family, so traditionally I would be named like her. My mother didn’t like it though….and said that never after her other childs will be named because tradition…They call me Caty at home 🙂 Now we like it, and in France I’m more Catalina and in Spanish speaking countries I’m Caty.
    Catalina is better pronounced in a foreigng language (actually when I say it people keeps pronouncing it like in Spanish, not the same for Caty that will give me the impression is not me…)
    So I’m Catalina and I’m Caty 🙂

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  43. Amy Kortuem

    Oh, poor Lucy! Reminds me of my friend: her last name is Pick. She married her husband with a last name of Krumm. She did not hyphenate her last name…
    My mom named me Amy because that’s what she’d always named her baby dolls when she was little. I love that story. Amy was an unpopular name then, considered “old fashioned.” My grandma didn’t like the name until she held me, and she said, “Oh, she’s an Amy.”
    Sniff.
    (P.S. I used to name my imaginary kitten friends “Felix!”)

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  44. Patti

    My parents always told me that was I was named after their dog. (and they did have a dog named Patty) Since my family has an Irish sense of humor, I’ve always thought it was fun to be named after the dog. But a better story… My husband and I were married 5 years before our oldest daughter was born. For that whole time, we planned to name a daughter Sarah. On the way to the hospital to pick her up (another story) we changed our mind and decided to call our baby daughter Jennifer. When we arrived at the hospital, we learned that the nurses had been calling her Jennifer for the whole week because she didn’t have a name. It was a God thing.

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  45. Delphine Payne

    I come from Australia and my mother was going to name me Bernadette but had a change of mind. My name came from a character in a paperback novel. As mother put it, ‘she was a tart’. Mum was not happy about having another baby but she thought the name was pretty and probably classy. I was born in the 50’s and always wished I was Susan or Dianne or Wendy, I loved Wendy. In my teenage years at the local dances, no one could hear or understand my name properly, due to the noise of the bands so it got shortened to Del, often misheard as Jill. Today, I sometimes introduce myself by both names especially to old people and let them choose. I am happy with my original name these days and ‘wouldn’t change it for quids’.

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  46. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    These stories were all so much fun to read!
    Speaking of names being popular in one era and not another, check out the “baby name wizard” website: you enter a name, wait a second, and it magically shows a chart of how much that name was used, from 1880’s til now! Pretty fun.
    http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#ms=false&exact=false
    (Corey peaked in the 1980’s, it says, and wasn’t even on the map as a girl’s name before the ’60s.)
    I’m named after my great-grandmother Rebecca, and have always loved that. For a middle name, being a child of the early 50’s, was given Ann. (We mostly seemed to get Ann, Lynn, or Jean: bored me to death!) I always wished that my middle name was Alice after my grandmother; Mom offered to help me change it legally when I was a child, but I told myself that when I married, I’d drop the middle name anyway. The joke was on my childhood self: when I married I kept my own last name so have been Rebecca Ann all this time.

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  47. Di

    Check this old BBC new story on unfortunate names – and read the comments because there are some really funny ones= my personal favourite is couple Sue and Rob. Sue the lawyer and Rob the banker whose surname is Mee – put it together and see what you get ;o)

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  48. Di

    Oops = here’s the link
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7909561.stm

    Reply
  49. Cherise

    hehe. I’m named for Syd Charisse, the dancer, because my mom liked her. I wish I had her legs… We had no problems with a name for our first. We had 2 finalists and it was an easy decision (Angelina). We had NO names for boys. Or, rather, we had none we both found acceptable. Swiss husband had longed liked “Lenaïc” an uncommon but very official Breton name. I nixed it due to the typical nickname Lenny. Baby # 2 was on the way, I was due in a couple of weeks and the best we managed was to cut our “short list” of 50 down to 10. Baby Boy came early, we still had no name. After a day, he finally won me over and now we have a Lenaïc. It’s not hard to say in English, just different. My American family can’t grasp it, so they call him Pablo. (because he looks Mexican). Swiss FIL decided Pablo was good, so he also calls him Pablo or (“Le Petit Mexican”)…
    btw – my brother was named Albert, after my uncle. Both died young (my brother at 31, my uncle at 9 months). The name is very special to me, but I don’t think I can ever name a child that.
    I’d always wondered how the French managed with Chelsea and Sacha. Great names 🙂

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  50. Laurie SF

    Laura, Lori, Loree, Laurie, Lorrie..
    My passport reads as Laura…but friends and family call me Laurie. Sounds French..Non?

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  51. Mahala

    I’m named after my great grandmother Mahala. My mom wanted to name me Alicia , but my grandma kept calling the hospital asking my mom to name me Mahala, so after a few days I was named.

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  52. Michelle M in KY

    Lucy Screws…
    I am still laughing…and laughing…that’s all OI can say!

    Reply
  53. Susan

    Everyone has such great stories. My dad changed my name on the way to the hospital to deliver me. No one has been able to tell me what the first name was, just that my dad decided he didn’t like it. So, Susan it became. One strange tidbit of information- my mother was told by the pediatrician one day that they had a new patient and with my exact name; first, middle, and last. She has gone on to do very well and as for me, the verdict is still out.

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  54. Karen C

    Corey – ENUFF!! You have been promising to tell us the story behind Sacha’s name ever since I began reading your blog. Please, please put us out of our misery.
    BTW My niece gave birth to her first child last night “Amieka Jade”. Can’t wait to cuddle her.
    Believe it or not my mother’s family name was “Mabel” Honestly! The generations are Julia Mabel, Helen Mabel and Valma Mabel. My initials are KM
    My middle name is NOT Mabel – it’s Michelle. My Mum loved me.

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  55. Zosia

    Zofia, Zosia, Zosienka, Zosiulek, Zoska. It’s all one name just in all the colours of terms of endearment.
    I am named after my Mother. I am the youngest girl in the family (3 boys, 2 girls). My oldest brother, Zygmunt (the first born), is named after our father.

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  56. Danna

    HAHA Too funny.
    Quentin. Wasn’t that the name of the werewolf on Dark Shadows?
    Though most any name spoken with a French accent is more beautiful.
    Just try this….
    C’est notre fille, Marie-Charlotte (French accent)
    Now say it with a deep, East Texas twang (think Randy Quaid)…..This our daughter Mary Charlotte.
    It’s just not the same!!!
    So perhaps, Quentin would be very sexy rolling from the lips of a little French girl.
    I was supposed to be Serena Abigail. Believe me when I tell you that I am neither a Serena nor an Abigail. At the eleventh hour they decided to name me Danna……for my mother’s maiden name was Daniel. Thank god.
    They named the dog Abigail, instead.
    Can’t wait to hear the story of Sacha.

    Reply
  57. Liam’s Grandma

    When my parents married, my dad had a beautiful Siamese cat named “Susie Baby.” My mom had a long-time fear of cats and had a very hard time coping with her. Siamese cats sense insecurity and my mother had it – big time. One day, my dad came home from work and the cat was gone. My mother never EVER told anyone what happened to the cat. My mom has been gone for 5 years now and she never told us where the cat went. But, when I was born, a year after the cat “went,” I was named Suzanne and, all my life, by my parents, was called, “Susie Baby.”

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  58. Linda

    My mother had the name Anita Eilen picked out but a spiteful cousin beat her to it so she named me Linda. I like it much better to tell the truth. She got the name from an actress who was famous at the time.

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  59. jend’isère

    Molly Bolts are at the hardwarestore, what are Lucy Screws? A Russian friends calls her daughter, Alexandra, its diminuative, Sacha. Sacha is the French spelling of Sasha, which can be for Alexandre or Alexander, as they do for many names.

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  60. Patty

    My Grampa’s name was Albert. Good solid Dutch name. Grandma called him Bert. But, everybody else called him A.J. I was the baby of my family and never got a satisfying explanation of why my folks chose Patricia for me…just liked it, they said. They called me Pitter Pat. And my middle name Lynn was the popular spelling of the day, but was an homage to Dad’s favorite Uncle Wilbur Linn. When I went way back into family history, I found a Mehitabel (female)and an Artemus (male)!

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  61. Elaine L.

    Oh my, Lucy Screws is worse than being Peter Long!
    My Paternal grandmother was Viola Josephine and my Maternal grandmother was Guadalupe Josephina. My dad said I was lucky because they had thought about naming me Josephine. HaHa I said.
    My dad wanted to name me Eileen, but changed his mind when he saw the name Elaine tattooed on a guys arm. For years, I wished I had been named Eileen. Elaine seemed so boring. I was born in the 50’s when names like Karen, Nancy, Susan, Debra, Jane, Kathleen etc. were popular.
    My middle name is Louise. That was my mother’s idea. Not sure how she came up with that I’ll have to ask her.
    ~elaine~

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  62. Mary

    Named after my grandmas also. Mary is a grand old name because it’s so easily translated into other languages. Some French people try to pronounce it “May-Ray” instead of “Marie,” though. Living in France, then returning to the States and teaching English to refugees and immigrants, I realized even more what an advantage it is to have a name that’s easy to say. My kids are Tim & Nora.
    In the funny last name vein, my town has a lot of German heritage with two big families being the “Worms” and the “Horrs.”

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  63. Missy Craig

    My Mother’s name, (she was born in 1924)is Priscilla. When she was six, her little friend nicknamed her “Pussy” because she had a coat with a fur collar and her friend said that she was like “Puss and Boots” My mother swears she didn’t know what her nickname meant until she married my Dad in 1943. My Dad, a pilot, tried to paint her name , “Pussy” on the side of his airplane in 1943, and they made him change it to “Pinky” . I have an old sepia tone picture of him pointing to the painted name while he is in the pilot’s seat. My Dad is 90 now and can be heard throughout the Walmart in Venice Florida sometimes looking for my mother when she wanders off while he is calling out her name, “Pussy! Pussy! ” Some people may think he is just an old man calling out a dirty name , but really he is a devoted husband looking for his dear wife of 68 years.

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  64. Cathy

    I agree with Danna that almost any name sounds better in French. Clothilde versus Clotilda. Mathilde verus Matilda, come to mind. The French versions sound like princesses. The English versions call to mind stout ladies with poodle curls, boiled tweed suits, roll up cotton stockings and sensible oxford shoes!
    Beatrice is also a name that fares way better in French, although I most love the way the Italians say it — Bay-uh-tree-chay.
    Nothing special about the origins of my name. It was just popular the year I was born (I have no fewer than 4 close friends with the same name)and it sounded suitably American. My mother was second generation and like a lot of her generation didn’t want her kids to have ethnic-sounding names that Americans couldn’t spell or pronounce. The irony is our generation is moving back the other way. My sister named her daughter after our mother.

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  65. Sally

    Corey, this cracked me up and I exploded when you came to ‘Like the cat?’ and my breakfast coffee went everywhere. Thank you for making me laugh at breakfast, it’s the best way to start the day. I am Sally for the Jerome Kern musical but I wish I was my sister Amanda as my mother always used to quote in a poignant stagey voice from Noel Coward’s Private Lives (her source for the name): ‘You always had a sweet voice, Amanda.’ It sounded so refined.

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  66. Franca Bollo

    The looming question is … what is Mrs Screws’s husband’s name? The short form of “Richard”? The saint at the gate? John Thomas (Brit slang for “pee-pee-er” as my mother called it)?
    Then there’s always the former race car driver, Richard Trickle, informally know as Dick. Later became a spokesperson for Depends.

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  67. Debe

    That was a really fun post! Love laughing out loud. I am named after Debbie Reynolds but I changed the way I spell Debe. Always loved my middle name, Eileen, but could never get the name to stick when I moved to a new school. The initials that names would give you are also problems that is why my son did not get the two names I wanted to give him…his initials would have been ANL. Too close to another word, I thought…

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  68. CindyB

    Great post!
    Growing up with the last name of Becker, my father, ever the teaser, would tell my sisters and I that he wanted to name one of us “Becky Becker”, but Mom wouldn’t let him. My brother thought it was very funny and named his daughter that. We felt very bad for her, but she LOVED having that name growing up!
    I don’t know where my name came from, other than it was VERY popular in 1961. I have always been Cindy B. I could always tell the teachers with a little dyslexia problem: When they called my name for roll call, they’d say, “Becky Cinder”.

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  69. Cathy J.

    My mom named after her friend’s baby. When I met my name sake (Cathlyn) it was really funny, she was very tall and very thin. I’m average height and definitely not thin. Funny how that worked out. I love my name Cathlyn, I always get compliments about it; however, all my friends call me Cathy!

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  70. george

    i was named after georgina in the famous five! but everybody has called me george since which really upsets my mother!

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  71. amylia

    Of course Amy (my birth name) comes from the French name “Aimee” meaning love/beloved. But my legal name is Amylia, and that is another story. I wrote about it here: http://www.amyliagrace.com/2008/02/love-in-action.html

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  72. Dawn

    I was born at 4:53 am…which is why my parents named me Dawn…(and the reason I named my blog – 4:53 am).
    I have a hunch that my mother would have named me Dawn even if I had been born at 4:53 Pm. She adored it. But this the story she always told me about my name.
    Growing up, I thought it was odd to have such a different name…with all my friends with names like Debbie, Nancy, Mary, Patty, you know…
    Since I grew up in the south, all my friends thought it was a strange name, too. I can’t tell you how many times someone said…”Don? Isn’t that a BOY’S name?” Then I would have to spell it.
    :-/
    I eventually learned to appreciate different.

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  73. Brenda

    My name is Brenda, I was the “caboose” , a surprise to my family, mom aged 40 and thought she was “going through the change” Boy was she due for a change! My older sister named me after one of her paper-dolls.
    My mom chose middle name “Marie” after many great grandmothers. Brenda means “Sword, or enthusiasm” Marie means “myrrh” (bittersweet herb to sweeten bad water), a gift to baby Jesus from the kings! Translate that—I’m a sharp pain, but the bittersweet of that is I’m a gift!

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  74. Lynda

    I also was born in 1946 and my mother wanted to name me Erin or Aarron but my father overruled her and named me after Linda Darnell, a beautiful actress at the time. When they agreed on a middle name of Annette then my father filled out the name form and spelled linda as Lynda. It stood out against the other Lindas I grew to know as I attended school. I liked my name and got a kick out of being named for an actress. I feel entitled to a little drama now and then!

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