Baby Names? Vintage?

[Miss 1929]

At least give them their own first name!

In our family, everyone got a unique name, as it is considered bad luck in Jewish culture to name a child after someone who is living.
But, in my husbands' family, everyone has the same names.
In the immediate circle of first cousins, there are 4 Jose's, 4 Raul's, and 5 Maria Theresa's!
And all the MTs go by the same nickname, Teri!
It is so very confusing.
This is why in Latin countries, they use both the father's name and mother's name together as last names, or, if a married woman, your maiden name followed by the husband's father's name (like mine - the "de" means "married to").
So I am always asking things like, "do you mean Teri Aguilar Fernandez or Teri Fernandez Aguilar?"
And I still have no idea how I am related to all these people, I seriously need a family tree.

 

[Miss Sis]

That's why my Mum said 'No Naming After Other People!' when it came to me and my two brothers.

It's nice to just be yourself with no, perhaps, expectations on you because of your name but on the other hand I do see that you might really like a name because of it's connection to your family. I see the sense of not naming someone after someone living too.

My Dad and his cousin are both named after their Grandfather and they have exactly the same name! Just a first and last name, no middle name to distinguish them and when they were young they even lived on the same street. That's just plain silly. They had to be called Big and Little so people knew who was who!

 

[Sunny]

I was named for my great-great-aunt Virginia. We called her Auntie Ve. She would've been born in the late 1910s, I think.

Emil, Wilfred, Clarence, Donald, Norman, Samuel, Daniel, are all male names in my family. Luella, Maude, Barbara (one on each side), and Marjorie Carol are all the female names that come to mind.

 

[dollydaydream]

I don't know where my name came from, no other Katies in the family. I was going to be a lucy. Who knows where that came from either. Mummy just worke up & I was a Katie. She was really annoyed lol

TOday I had the usual, 'are you a Kate or a Katie? A Katherine?' No, I'm just a Katie. My mummy is the Catherine

It makes me a bit sad to not know where my name came from or the reason for it...

 

[tuppence]

Ursula

Having grown up a Jennifer, I will be one who gives my child a more interesting name. I'm quite fond of my great grandfather's name Anastace for a little girl. However my grandmother's will not be used - Formida. Most others in my family had rather simple earthy names like Frank, Dave, Edward... I am
also way fond of Ursula, Lana and Ava. If I have a boy, he will be a Vlad (if I get my way!).

There was a phase in which I tried desparately to change mine around going from Jenny to Jenna to Genepher... Now it's just Jen. Tired of being one of 1 million Jennifers in the world.

Name your daughter Ursula, she will never be able to watch Disneys 'The Little Mermaid' as that was the horrible sea witch's name.
fftopic: Why does Disney always make the bad people ugly. It teaches children that being non-beautiful means you are a bad person.
I named my daughter Coralie, which is old fashioned(goes back to the French Revolution) and rare over here.
And then she hated it because "No-one else has that name'

 

[mackenzie]

Name your daughter Ursula, she will never be able to watch Disneys 'The Little Mermaid' as that was the horrible sea witch's name.
fftopic: Why does Disney always make the bad people ugly. It teaches children that being non-beautiful means you are a bad person.
I named my daughter Coralie, which is old fashioned(goes back to the French Revolution) and rare over here.
And then she hated it because "No-one else has that name'

My second name is Ursula, they laughed at me when the lttle mermaid came out . Now 10-15 years later I kinda like it ( my name, not being laughed at...) And there is always Ursula Adams holding my back...

 

[Audrey Horne]

My grandma was named Tommie Sue and her sister was Bobbie. There was also Jean, Bo, and Frank. I didn't discover until her death that my other grandma's real name was Agnes. She went by Louise, her middle name, all her life. I had great grandmas Golda and Flora.

For baby names we'd like Annabel Lee and James Atticus. I'm worried that Annabel will turn into Anna, which I'm not particularly fond of but we'd spell it that way after the Poe poem. Conveniently James is my father and my maternal grandfather's name.

 

[Brinybay]

No kidding when I say I was born after Sandra Dee.
I was just reading on Yahoo about a judge blocking people from naming their kids crazy names.
In my family recently the younger ones have come up with these.
Mykala, Jaydn, Cadynce? ( I am going to call her cricket) and now Loralei. ( I think Loralei is an older name. i sort of like this one.)

So were you named a vintage name and what is a crazy name you are hearing people name kids lately? Some I think I would rather be named Sue. Some more crazy family baby names soon when I remember them.

After Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Diva Thin Muffin Zappa, everything else seems normal. Even Ahmet, #3 of the four Zappa kids, seems normal in comparison.

 

[Miss Sis]

Further to my post above, I actually found out there are FIVE children amongst my Dad's family all with exactly the same name! My Dad is the oldest out of them all, so at least he was first.

How crazy is that?

 

[Minerva]

Further to my post above, I actually found out there are FIVE children amongst my Dad's family all with exactly the same name! My Dad is the oldest out of them all, so at least he was first.

How crazy is that?

Were they all named for the same someone?

I know in our family, I have to check against other family members and birth/death dates to identify which "someone" we're talking about for genealogy records.

I'll use "Anatole" for an example. One of my father's second cousins was Anatole. He was named for his father (who went by "Nat"), who in turn was named for his mother's father. Nat also had an older brother Anatole who died as a young child. His mother's father (my gg-grandfather) went by his middle name Laurent. He was named for his uncle Anatole, who had a son Anatole fils (junior), and I believe at least one grandson named Anatole. I haven't unsnarled that branch down to the present yet since we haven't been talking to then for the last century or so, so for all I know they're still using "Anatole". That's way too many people with the same name, most of who were alive at the same time!

 

[Lillemor]

I haven't read through the previous posts.

http://www.angelfire.com/id2/heathersnamepage/

Maternal grandmother b.1911 - Amanda
Paternal grandmother b.1912 - Ila Mae
Paternal grandfather b.1915 or so - Earchall later changed to Earl
Maternal grandfather b. early 1900s - Laurits
Oldest Aunt b.1930s - Doris

My boys names are timeless or again fashionable older names:

Frederik Benjamin
Tobias Rolf
Gustav Valdemar.

They only go by their first name of courselol We also considered Bjarke, Ditlev, Jonas or Thorbjørn.

If one of them had been a girl we were thinking of Amalie, Dagmar, Linnea or Thea. All the names were fashionable around 1890-1900 and from the 1990s and still quite present.

I went to school with a girl named Gertrud which isn't even a normal name here and the poor girl was really ugly and shy too.

 

[Edward]

alot of Latin folks name their children "Jesus".

Despite being aware of this, I was still kinda a bit freaked out by it when I visited Vegas some years ago and found the racks of novelty items with "your name on it" - Jesus' Casino dice, 'Hi, I'm Jesus!' t shirts, and - the piece de resistance - "Condoms Specially fitted for Jesus."

Sidney's very much a male name... Do you get female Sids in the States?

It's a proper Uncle's name too my mind!

The only Sydney I know currently is a young female cat - she's quite a character. Very punk rock in her own way.

The only snag with naming kids after people we think cool is what if they grow up to hate 'em? Heh. I remember seeing a documentary about the King's fans on TV one night, and thinking 'damn, that kid's lucky he grew up to be a fan too, or he'd really have hated being called Elvis.'

Ira's a fantastic name, Warbaby!

Of course I'm going to start sobbing and singing Johnny Cash ballads now, but in my house, that's a good thing!

R

First time I ever heard of that name, I was about 10, and saw it on a US sitcom. I remember being somewhat confused when the chratcer had it emblazoned on something - a suitcase, maybe? - in block capitals. lol

Myrtle and Iza. I think they are some of the worst names ever!

Ah, now. Myrtle is a name I rather like, but it also makes me feel a little sad for poor old Myrtle in The Great Gatsby and what happened to her.

Just a first and last name, no middle name to distinguish them and when they were young they even lived on the same street. That's just plain silly. They had to be called Big and Little so people knew who was who!

I always hated having a middle name. Never saw the point in it (other than to cause embarassment, I guess). Maybe they have their uses in limited circumstances. [huh]

 

[limetree]

I had (she died) an aunt Eleanor

My little sister is named Eleanor, but people constantly call her Ellen which drives her mad. In fact both my little sisters got lovely old names (although they are both under 18), Eleanor Victoria May and Maisie Catherine Frances. I think I'm just jealous because I went to school with 4 other girls with my name, Megan
Coincidently my best friend is Ellen and her little sister is Meg.
I'm also very jealous of all your fascinating family histories. My grandparents all died quite early without really passing on history so unfortunately many of the people in our old photo albums remain mysterious and nameless.

 

[Foofoogal]

fftopic:
http://www.ancestry.com.au/

Maybe start here. You may be surprised.
My father passed away and I thought all his family was gone to me forever. I had inherited some old old photos including a few tintypes.
One day my brother posted on a myfamily.com forum and found the daughter of my fathers first cousin. Seems she had contact with alot of another side of the family we didn't even know.
She invited us to the 50th. year reunion. So I grabbed my bad full of photos.
I still sort of get goose bumps when I say I met a very old lady about 90 years old. I was showing her all my old photos. I pulled out a 5 by 7 which I always thought had to be someone my dads mother would know well as a 5 by 7 back then had to be expensive. Well anyway the photo was of 2 small girls. The old lady said, "well honey, this is me and my baby sister."
I learned she passed away about 2 months after the reunion.
I ended getting almost all but about 2 of these photos identified. I also ended up getting about as much genealogy as I can take for awhile. lol
I also got knowledge of my fathers family coming out of the woodwork.

 

[Charbeau]

My sister and I both have "old-fashioned" names given to us in the 70s. I am named after a great-grandmother, Jessie, and she is named after another family member, a cousin, and is Rachael.

My daughter is Ella and my son Gabriel. I have very young children and it appears that there are three current naming trends right now: kre8tive names that take another name and spell it in a funny way (y's show up in a lot of these names), the -en names which are HOT, HOT, HOT and include Jaden, Kaden, Hayden, Brayden, etc. and then old-fashioned names are regaining popularity, turn of the century not mid-century though. Names like Sarah, Olivia, Sophia, Hannah, Elizabeth, etc. are VERY popular right now.

This woman is the name guru of the 21st century:

http://www.babynamewizard.com/

 

[Miss 1940's]

dont get stuck with a modern name like Ashley!

I was named after a soap character Ashley Abbott from "young and the restless"
The question is, what in the hell was my mother and father thinking when they named me?
My sisters on the other hand have beauitful names
Catherine Elaine Stewart
Sarah-Mary elizabeth Stewart.
At least my mother and father gave me a vintage Middle Name " edith"
I like it!
Some of my friends call me Edie.

 

[Viola]

My name is Jordanna, though I go by Josie, as it is easier for a lot of people to say. No matter how many times I was assured as a kid that Jordanna was creative and beautiful and stuff like that, I wanted a "normal" name.

I wanted to be a Jennifer or a Joanne for a looong time in elementary school I didn't understand WHY my mother had so "thoughtlessly" picked a name that doesn't come on premade personalized mugs and keychains and bedroom decals.

"Josie" as a nickname outraged my parents when they first heard about it - years after I'd started using it - but they've gotten used to it. Now, of course, I don't hate Jordanna the way I did as a kid, either. lol

My fiance and I have picked out names for our future children that I think kind of sit right in the middle of not-heard-everywhere but not-at-all-bizarre names: Liam and Caroline. Who knows, though, there may be 10 of each in their grades at school!

 

[olive bleu]

My full name is Cindy Julia Ann.I really did not like Cindy growing up because there were 2 other Cindys in my small class of 12. Because we all knew one another and often played together, the way everyone decided to refer to me to make it less confusing, was to ALWAYS use my first and last name together ( like Charlie Brown) It always made me feel like such a blockheadlol

When my mother told me that my middle name, Julia, was after my Great-Aunt Julia who was apparently, much loved..i KNEW that was my rightful name.I told my Mother for years that when i turned 30, i was going to officially start using the name Julia and I did.No more blockhead.

When i named my own children I wanted old names, but not ones that were overly common.My first son was Brodie, which i think is not old, but sounds it.My second was named Morgan (from the old welsh-Morcant) and my third, Jonah . I love both the names Morgan and Jonah, because i was born and raised near the sea and i intentionally chose names that had some reference to the sea.

Although a lot of old names are becoming popular again, my kids have lot of friends who have names that i cannot begin to pronounce or remember such as Bassima, Niic'Queiiaa, Mykeene, Jaleel, Leakyy(?),Breezy, DeChaun, Brenakka, Shaiez...I really feel terrible when they come trucking through my kitchen and all i can do is smile and say "HI", and i know i have seen them before but cannot come up with a name

 

[Miss Sis]

Were they all named for the same someone?

Yes, they were all (all FIVE of them) named after their Grandfather. Big family.

It was very common in Holland to be named after your Grandparents. My Dad, his brother and two sisters are all named after one of their Grandparents. My cousin is named after our Grandmother exactly but goes by a different name. If my Dad had had his way, I'd have had the same name too!

 

[duggap]

Well, my first name is Gerald. I know that it is vintage because it was given to me 63 years ago. And, yes, I was named after someone in the family so that makes the name even older and more vintage.