The Sundance Kid
There’s been a lot of naming conversations going on lately, about whether people liked their name or their kids’ names, but I have a different question:
Who were you named after? A grandmother, a favorite aunt, a sandwich, a dog?
According to story #1 (there are two, as nothing is ever simple in our family), I was named after Robert Redford’s daughter. My pregnant mom was at the doctor waiting for an appointment. At the time, the plan was to name me Tiffany. (No offense to any Tiffanys out there, but this is so NOT my personality.) But, my mom read a magazine article about Redford, who mentioned his daughter Shauna…and the rest is history.
But! That’s not the whole story. A few years ago, I was talking with my mom about this and she contradicted her very own story with story #2: “I was going through checks at work (she worked in accounting at Target), and I saw a check with the name Shauna and thought it was pretty. So that’s how you were named.”
Right. I completely made up my own story about being named after Robert Redford’s daughter because I was ashamed of the truth. Which is that I was named after someone who owed Target money. Whatever.
Wait, that actually seems totally appropriate.
Anyway, who (or what) are you named after?
I wasn’t named after anyone or anything. My mom just liked the name. My sister’s middle name is Monet, though, after my mom’s favorite painter. I think that’s really cool and I’d like to do something similar with my own kids’ middle names.
Comment by Jess — November 29, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
My grandfather is the oldest of 14, so his youngest brother is about my mom’s age. His wife (who I have never met) was apparently very pretty and someone my mom really admired, so I am named after her. Also, it was a requirement that the name be relatively nickname-proof. And I guess it worked, because I have never gone by anything other than my full name.
Comment by My Buddy Mimi — November 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
I was named after the Neal Diamond song. Yup.
Comment by Flibberty — November 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
Jess,
I love Monet! We have a beautiful print of his in our bedroom. I also like Caspar David Friedrich – maybe I can name a future son Caspar?
Comment by Shauna — November 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
MBM, That is cool. I love when people are named after someone who was greatly admired.
Flibberty, Cool! Did you hear that he recently revealed who his inspiration was for that song?
Comment by Shauna — November 29, 2007 @ 4:29 pm
Supposedly I was supposed to be a Stephanie which is the feminine of my father’s name, Stephen (an ages old family name…) but my dad protested that it was a bad name. So I was named after his patron saint (I am still unsure what that means but he grew up in a VERY CATHOLIC family and was in the Merchant Marines so likely this is something she bestowed on my father before he left). His patron saint was Christopher so I am the feminine, Christina. Not sure if it true… it was probably the name of the nurse who helped birth me or something (I was a BIG oops…)
Comment by Christina — November 29, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
sorry the she I referred to was my grandmother… it is the end of the day, I am totally rambling here…
Comment by Christina — November 29, 2007 @ 4:51 pm
My parents totally made up my name. I have one of those double names, like Anna Lee (though that’s not it). I had always thought the Lee part was my middle name. Until I was IN HIGH SCHOOL and was talking to my mom about my name. And she was all, No, you don’t **have** a middle name. Your first name is XXX XXXX. It was one of those weird identity moments.
I wonder how (and why) we all know what and from whom we were **supposed** to be named? I was going to be named Carrie. But then I wasn’t. WHY DO I KNOW THIS?
Comment by whimsy — November 29, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Well, do you want to gory truth? My middle name means “snow” in Japanese. This makes sense because my dad lived in Japan for awhile and majored in Japanese in college. But why snow specifically? Apparently I was conceived during a very romantic first snowfall of the year.
If I was a boy I would have been Anders.
My son is named Scott, which is my dad’s middle name. And Scott’s middle name is my husband’s first name. We’re really creative huh? But I honestly liked the names.
My daughter’s first name is just one we liked. Then everyone wanted us to use Elizabeth for her middle name since it’s my MIL and SIL’s middle name and they sounded good together. But seriously, could Elizabeth as a middle name be any more predictable? It’s right up there with Ann and Marie. If you don’t know a female’s middle name, just guess Elizabeth, Ann, or Marie, and you’re probably right. We compromised with a name I really liked that’s similar: Eliza.
There you go, more than you wanted to know.
Comment by Gretchen — November 29, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
My mother didn’t have a boy name picked out and they battled over a girl name. My dad wanted to name me Jolene or Roxanne (hello? Did he want me to be a stripper??) but thankfully my mom did not. She had suggested Shelly months before but Dad didn’t like it. When she nixed Jolene/Roxanne, he came up with Shelly “on his own” (or so he still thinks).
Comment by Shelly — November 29, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
Wait – there was Target, like, twenty-something years ago? How come we only got it, like, 8 years ago?!
I was named after, uh, names off of the top 20 list in the early 80s. My dad wanted to name me Alexis so he could call me Lexi, but that never happened.
Comment by Stephanie — November 29, 2007 @ 8:17 pm
OK, if I was a boy, I would have been a Mark Jr. — no questions. But, alas, I was not and thus began the THREE DAY fight over what to name me. My dad, “Let’s name her Cherish!” (1975) My mom, “Um, let’s get a divorce.” (kidding.)
My mom countered with Melanie, my dad vetoed (my little sister triumphed with that name. yes, our names rhyme. shut it.). He suggested naming me after his mother: Shirley Arlene. My mother again says, NO WAY. He then says, “Let’s name her Rhiannon.” (HUGE Stevie Nicks fan). My mom vetoed that and they settled on naming me after her parents: Stephen and Marie = Stephanie Marie. All that back and forth and I think they did a decent job.
And we all lived happily ever after the end.
Comment by stephanie — November 29, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
DOG. Totally dog. My mom’s best friend was a vet and one of her “patients” was named Tessie Jo. LE SIGH.
Also, TIFFANY? No, no, no.
Comment by Tessie — November 29, 2007 @ 10:43 pm
Let me just say, I loved my Mom, but good god I wish I’d been allowed to choose my own name.
First, I was named Amber after my mother’s cousin, Amber, who evidently she envied because this cousin was pretty and popular and successful. I mean, talk about dooming me to failure before I was even born. Also, Amber? I mean, it isn’t my personality at all. Who thinks Amber is a STRIPPER name? I do!
Secondly, my middle name is after my mother’s mother (she had a thing for family names evidently), who has the same middle name. It’s unusual and made up. I have never heard of anyone else having this name, potentially because it’s butt-ugly. It might also be appropriate to mention that this grandmother and I do not get along, at all, ever.
Oh, fine, it’s ‘Olline’ pronounced (ah-leen). Is that bizarre, or what?
Comment by amber — November 30, 2007 @ 12:33 am
My parents liked the name Michelle. But my grandparents wanted to call me Micki or Shelley(we all know I am NOT a Shelley). My middle name is Elizabeth and that is a family name on my mom’s side.
Comment by Michelle — November 30, 2007 @ 9:33 am
I am one of 4 daughters, and my mother wanted to name at least one of us Sally. My dad hated the name Sally, so they ‘discussed’ it with each birth. Being of Southern descent, we all have family surnames as middle names instead of Jo or Mary or anything like a girl’s name. So I have a normal first name and my middle name is Humphreys, my grandmother’s maiden name. Talk about never living something down in childhood. Only my youngest sister lucked out, when my mom gave her the middle name of a dear friend, Grace. The rest of us have these bulky weird names.
Comment by PixelPi — November 30, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Well, I and everyone else born in the 70s am named Jennifer Lynn. Which is okay. If everyone else can live with it, so can I. Plus, it’s WAY WAY better than Daphne Arlene, which is what my grandmother wanted my mother to name me. Yay mom for not going along with THAT travesty!
Comment by JMC — November 30, 2007 @ 11:06 am
Amber! That is so funny because my parent’s had picked out Amber Rose for me but my paternal grandmother thought it sounded like the name of a stripper! I’m so sorry that you were actually named Amber. I lucked out because my parents listened to grandma (really they didn’t have a choice because your HAD to listen to her if you know what I mean). So I got Emily Anne instead. I’ve always really liked my name. Perhaps because I knew the alternative.
Oh and if I had been a boy it would have been Dean. Yuck.
Comment by Emily — December 3, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Emily: I love the name Emily, and always have. I am green with envy over here.
Comment by Amber — December 3, 2007 @ 8:48 pm
Wow, that was a close call. TIFFANY. Whooo.
My first name isn’t “after” anyone per se, but my mom was a teacher and she grew fond of the name after having a student with that name.
My middle name is ACTUALLY part of the “French-ish names are cool!” ’70s trend (Michelle, Danielle, etc.), but it also happened to be the surname of one of my dad’s favorite college professors, so after they thought of the name they thought, “Oh, and it’s ‘after’ Dr. ______!”
Comment by Swistle — December 4, 2007 @ 12:56 am
Shauna, does your mom ever look at your checks and think, “Hey, cool!”?
I’m told that my grandfather wanted a daughter named Susan, but never had one, so that’s why I have this name. But it could very well be a cover for a check story.
Comment by Susan — December 4, 2007 @ 6:20 pm