General Chat

Was going to be called Laura but then two of my dads cousins had little girls before i was born and both called them Laura so my parents decided against it. My dad wanted to call me Honor (sp?) after the actress Honor Blackman. No idea where they got the Mhairi from or the Louise. Have had to cope with people calling me 'Va-ree' (one of the ways to pronounce my name) even though thats not the way i say it. Its quite funny when i'm somewhere new and they cant say my name, i've had heard some really weird ways to say it. My brother is David (after my uncle i'm guessing, who was named after his great uncle who was one of my grans favorite uncles) and Alexander after my dads brother, father, granfather ect. I have too many Alexanders on both sides. Mhairi

Well this will raise a smile: when my parents wed they moved to Buckinghamshire and lived with my paternal gran. They kept a pig, called by their favourite name Susan. My mum had a still born son Richard, and my gran was so unkind to mum that they moved back to Norwich where mum's family came from. The pig had to be slaughtered before they left. When I arrived some months later their first choice of name was Susan, but thankfully they changed their minds, who wants to be named after a pig!! I am not that keen on Elizabeth, would have preferred Annabel or even Anna after my mum's mum who I never knew, but just got plain Ann as a middle name. Don't mind being called Liz but still don't like answering to Elizabeth. It was always a pain when I was learning to write as I have a long surname, so when my son was born, as he still had my surname, I wanted something short, easy to write, and unusual, so he is Guy. His middle name is Samuel - chosen because his father, and my two grandfathers were Alfred, but one g.father was Alfred Samuel so I used that as it kind of linked the rellies together. My daughter was named Zoe in 1974 as it was very unusual then, she was born very prematurely so it was also chosen because it means 'life' and I hoped it would help her to live. Sadly she never made it past 3 days but I still love the name.

Because mine had no imagination :-( Mum couldn't be bothered even thinking about names left it to lazy father who wasn't much interested in names either I believe he asked a couple of people who said why not choose a name that can be used for a girl or boy hence Patricia which could have been Patrick, don't like either best I can think of is Pat Not Patty, Patsy, Tricia or Trish. Just Pat will do still don't like it though :-( Pat x

Susan because ever since my Mum was a little girl she wanted to call her daughter Susan. I've always been Sue or Susie though - except when she was cross with me! My middle name Ann was after my Dad's Mum who was Jessie Ann. My brother was given his name Iain after a Scottish soldier Mum worked with during WW2, because she thought it went well together. When she met my Dad and he had the same surname as this soldier, she just had to name their son Iain! His second name is Roy after Dad and his Dad. I'm just glad we weren't named after Mum's parents - Florence (no second name - I suppose after 10 children you run out of names! LOL) and Harry Gustavus! My children were given their names just because we liked them. I haven't found any relatives on either side with the names of my 3 eldest, which are quite 'normal' not unusual names, but I've found out that my youngest, James Edward, has ancestors on both sides called James and a GG Uncle Edward (my Dad's uncle) who was killed in WW1 aged 20. One of my grandaughters was named Emma, because they liked the name, but since then I've found out that both her 4x and 3x great grandmothers were Emma too. Sue xx

My dad wanted to name me Dorothy after my mum but she didn't like her name so I ended up with Deborah then mum's middle name Ann. Mum's from a family of 16 and dad 5, they wanted us to have names not already used so really had to think on them. Except for my oldest sister (she got both the grannies names) Theresa Grace. My dad was named after his mothers maiden name and another surname I haven't yet found. How would you like the name Fillmore Burns last name Myles. My poor dad, he used to introduce himself as Bob. lol

My first name Margaret was after my Mum's Mum, but my second name caused me much upset and tears. According to the story my father told, his grandfather William was supposedly a dying man and his wish was that I bore his surname....... Bushell !! Apologies to anyone with this surname, but I hated it. If he had wanted a say why couldn't I have carried his wife's name Sarah. Anyway, as a child I cried and cried over this name and my sister called Valerie Anne used to taunt me about it. At junior school I used to pretend that the B initial stood for Becky, anything than admit to the awful name I had been lumbered. As I grew older the tears obviously stopped but I refused to acknowledge the name and I was married without it, divorced without it and to this day do not include it in anything. As far as I am concerned I have only one Christian name. I can clearly remember being terribly terribly uncharitable and dreadful and remarking to my father that I wished his grandfather had died earlier so that he couldn't have lumbered me with this awful name. I feel awful saying that now, but at the time it was how I felt.

My grandfather picked my name, the story goes he was in the middle east fighting and came across it and asked my mum to call her daughter 'Roxanne'!! so Ive been told!

Thanks for all your replies everyone. It's really interesting to see how our parents come up with all our names. love Rebecca Elanor (AKA Bec)xx

Not sure for definite why they chose Andrew other than it was popular at the time (and no doubt still is), I can certainly think of 4 or 5 Andrews in my year at school. I'm pretty sure my middle name of Roger came about as one of my mum's cousins has that name. My brother got both his names through the fact I had two mates at the time with one of those names (Jonathan and Antony). Sorry, nothing more interesting than that!

Hi Bec, Both my names are family names. I was named after my Mum's dotty sisters. Obviously I haven't inherited their madness. Gwynne

my first name is just because they like it and my middle name was after my great nan. her first name was nancy and my mum didnt want to call me that so i share the same middle name as her. xx

My Mum was Christina, but she told me I was called after the mid-wife who delivered me. Since doing my tree, though I have found quite a few Christine's on both sides of the family. Apparently I was to be called after my Dad, who is Donald.....they were just gonna shove INA on the end.....whatever made them think DONALDINA was good idea????? Thankfully they thought better of it in the end and my younger brother got hit with Donald! LOL Christine

My Dad was a late baby. His parents had already given their favourite name to the dog - so my Dad is named Bob after the dog. We struggled with naming our first daughter - we were alright for boys names. Hubby and I took turns to write down five favourite ones from a baby-name book. By sheer fluke we matched one.

I seem to have come from books. My mum found the name Kay from reading about Arthurian knights and although I was christened Kay, because my dad was reading Nada the Lily at the time, half the family calls me Kay, the other Nada. No wonder I get muddled sometimes lol. My sister is called Dawn but if my dad had had his way and had she been a boy, she would have been called King (my maiden name was Fisher!) Definitely Kay x