where did your child's name come from?

I'm just curious because I think it's interesting where a person's name comes from--be it a family name, interesting combo of names or whatever.

Ella was going to be Alana for a long time, but I decided about 6 weeks before I had her that she was not an Alana. I was right. Ella fits much better Her middle name, Rain, wasn't decide until the day of her birth. It stormed and poured all night the day before I had her, and I just remember listening to and watching the rain and thinking how pretty it was. It's kind of an unusual name, but I like it. If she was a boy her name would've been Oliver, James, or Peter.

For Caleb we spent a lot of time wrestling with literary names, especially once we knew it was a boy: Characters from Dickens, Hemmingway, "To Kill a Mockingbird" , "Lord of the Rings". (My husband wouldn't let me get away with Atticus or Samwise but I tried!) We almost gave up, and debated between Tobias, Sebastian and Peter, all characters from one of my all time favorite books, "Heidi". But when we saw my 5 and a half pounder Caleb we knew those names were too big for such a little boy, so we went with Caleb, which means "whole hearted" and is my husband's favorite uncle's name. His middle name is after his daddy (Isaac).

For Linnea-Claire, we wanted another name that was a bit unusual, and even though we already had Libby and Lydia, we thought we really needed an "L" name. (My husband also says the "L" thing was for me). Linnea (Lynn-eh-uh) is the Swedish flower and was a family name from a friend of mine when we were young. We decided to tack the Claire on to kind of even out the L's Her middle name, Scarlet, comes from my best friend in college/Ella's babysitter. Also works with my literary obsession (Scarlet O'Hara)

So where did your your kids' names come from?

 

My oldest is Benjamin Jack Ben was just a name we came up with Jack is my grandapa who died from pancreatic cancer before me and my DH got married.

Taylor is a name that I really liked and her middle name Roni is after her grandma DH mom.

Brianna is #3 and I really liked Anika or Ashley. I got a lot of grief for Anika and Ashley was my DH and actually BIL's ex girlfriends (2 different Ashleys) so my MIL told me I could not use that name. But she is definitly a Brianna. Her middle name is Glenn named after me, great grandma and great great grandma.
Yes Roni and Glenn are sort of boy names but they are girl names in my family. So that is what my girls got.

 

My oldest, Alexander Charles (we call him Alex) - Alexander is my Dad's middle name and Charles is my husband's middle name.

My second, Andrew Roland - we liked the name Andrew, and Roland was my husband's dad's name.

Third - Daniel Raymond - Again, we just liked the name Daniel, and Raymond was my husband's birth father's middle name.

My daughter, Keira Marie - Keira was picked by my husband - it was Olivia Newton-John's character's name in the movie Xanadu (she played a muse...). Yeah, we know it is a terrible movie, but he loved the name (and Olivia in the movie!) With each boy, it was going to be Keira if it was a girl! And Marie is my middle name.

 

All three of our kids first names we just liked but their middle names have meaning.. Kayla's middle name was my aunt that died while I was pg with her. Noah's middle name was dh's friend that died when he was younger. Nick's middle name is my uncles middle name.

 

Marley Ellen and Thomas Parker

My daughter Marley's name came from a joke we started about how my husband and I loved Bob Marley music. When I was pregnant with her, I used to play Bob Marley music and put it up against my stomach, and when she was a baby I rocked her in the rocking chair to Bob Marley's "One Love." Ellen was the name of her deceased great-grandmother.

Thomas was an easy first name because my husband has 6 generations of men with the first name Thomas. Everyone changes their middle name. We joked about Peter Parker from Spiderman and decided to go with Thomas Parker. We call my son Parker - his middle name.

 

Ashleigh Hazel-Ashleigh because i've loved that name since i was like 9 years old. Hazel after my husband's grandma. She passed away shortly after Ashleigh's 1st birthday.

Madisyn Alivia-Just names my husband and I liked. I picked Madisyn he picked Alivia.

Emely Rose-Again names that we liked. We both liked Emely and I thought Rose sounded nice as a middle name.

Cathryn Grace-I originally wanted Julia. But DH didn't like the name. So i told him to pick a name. He wanted either Cathryn or Caitlyn. We already have several friends/family with the name Caitlyn, so we chose Cathryn. He originally suggested Cathryn Esther. But i said Yuck! LOL! His second suggestion was Grace which i approved.

 

Our oldest boy is Harold Hector after both of his Grandfathers Steven Thomas is my husbands late best friends name Steven. He died in a car accident when they were 16 and we wanted to honor his memory by naming our son after him. And Thomas is my youngest brother's name and we thought it went well

 

We had no name for my son when he was born since he was a month early. I had to have an emergency c -section with him. So I had told my Dh that I didn't want anyone to see him till he had a name. So we were going over names but none seem right for him. When my Dh asked me if we could name him HOBBES. I looked at him(I was pretty out of it from all the meds that they had me on) and asked why. He said that it had special meaning to him which he will share with our son when he was older. He also told me that it wasn't the cartoon caracter that he was being name after but the real Thomas Hobbes which the cartoon character was base on. I said Sure but his middle name would be Nathan meaning a gift from God which he is very much is!

I had choice Zoee's name after my mom passed away when I was 14 weeks along with her. It means life which at the time I so much need to feel that after losing my mom. Her middle name is Adriannah. I choice that name due to a childhood friend I had in elementary who name was Adrienne. Plus I love the name.

My Youngest name is Scarlett and tha tis b/c I LOVE Scarlett O'Hara and GONE With THE WIND. Cailtin is b/c we didn't have a middle name and like the name.

 

Both my kids first names were just ones we liked. Phillip's middle names are Jacob Rodney, Rodney is after my dad, and the Jacob just fit. Phillip Rodney didn't sound right.
Shanaiah's middle name is Rochelle, a family tradition after a cousin who died when she was 13. First born daughter always has her name. It goes together well too.

As an interesting aside: I was named by our neighbours. My parents had boys names picked out but couldn't agree on girls. Then a couple of days after I was born the neighbours suggested Stacie.

 

We wanted strong Christian names that meant something. So Jacob--means laying claim to something that is not his, and Christian means Christ follower, so we feel that Jacob Christian means even though we tried to claim something that wasn't ours we are Redeemed through Christ.

Sarah means Princess (which is a daughter of a king) and Elizabeth means consecrated to God. Hers is easier to figure out.

On a side note, on the Miller side of the family the initials D. W. had been used for generations. Specifically the names, Dee Willis, Denton William, Dan William. When I was pregnant with Jake, I had a couple of aunts TELL me to name him Dee Willis, as that name combo was up. And he was the only male in the Miller lineage. Needless to say, when we announced his birth and his name, I was not popular.

 

We chose Madison because my sister lived on Madison St and we really liked the name - we thought we were original with that one. And her middle name, Adele, because it's a family name - my mom, sister, grandma and myself have Adele as our middle name. I hated the middle name when I was a kid, but Madison loves it because of the singer... We were going to give Ethan my dh's middle name (to follow the trend) but that would give him the name Ethan Allen (the furniture store) so we gave him another family name Ethan Michael.

 

Both first names we just chose because we liked them.

Now my oldest's middle name I found in a Victoria Secret catalog. It was the name of one of their bras.

 

My boys both got family names. Campbell is named after my grandmother's maternal grandfather. He was James Campbell, so we have Campbell James. Tom has maiden names. My grandmother's maiden name is Thomas and my MIL's maiden name is Dean. Scott was hoping he'd play football with TD for initials

 

Made me laugh. lol, why not I guess?

My parents picked our names just because they liked them I think (Emma, Matthew, Ruth) - quite traditional! I will probably adopt one or more of my kids, and if they are of a certain age then I obviously wouldn't have choice over their names, and I'm fine with that. But if I do adopt younger or have a child of my own, I really love the name Alba.

 

My name is LynnEtte Rae, I was named after my parents and grandfathers. L for Lowell E for Esther. R reverend A Alfred E Earl.

I have no idea how my sister got her first name of Melodie. But her middle names are from our grandmothers Amelia Grace. My aunt wanted my parents to call her Henrietta Harriot!

My son has my and my husbands middle names Jonathan Ray.
My husband picked our daughter's name and I have no idea how he picked it, Melissa Joy.

 

Madison was the compromise name. I voted for Gabrielle or Cornelia, he was for Austin. Her middle name is Jorun which was my grandmothers middle name. It's Norwegian. I figured normal first name, I can't imagine having to spell out your odd name every time you have to call in for something, and odd middle name that you can just use the initial of if you don't care for it.

I'm Katherine after my Great-Grandmother and my middle name is Sue. My mom said just because it fit. Thank goodness because a longer one would never fit on those box forms. And I'm from Susanville.

 

My parents were watching the man from snowy river and my mom decided she liked the name jess. My middle name is my mom's first name, its a tradition in our family to name one of you girls with your first name as their middle, so I'll have to find a name that goes well with Jessica....hmmmm =)

Names I LOVE though (I'm one of three girls, we talk about this a lot)
Ether (nick name Esy)
Victoria (nick name Torey after Torey Hayden, my favorite author)
Jeremy Thomas (after two brothers we fostered for a while)
Tyler Zachary or Zachary Tyler (two other brothers we fostered)

 

lol, if it's the 1 I'm thinking of isn't there an actress named that too!

 

I really struggled with naming my firstborn. What a big responsibility...giving a person the name they will have forever! I really loved the name Emily from the time I was a child...and wanted to name my daughter that. However, when the time came, Emily was extremely popular, and I didn't want a name that 5 other girls in the class would have. But I also did not want anything that she would have to be spelling out or explaining for the rest of her life because it was so unusual. I really liked the name Nina, which was nixed by my husband...and so it was down to Kathryn or Rachel. We decided on Rachel after she was born, and use Catherine (spelled the way my Grandmother spelled her name) as a middle name.

When my son was born, I wanted a traditional, honest sounding name. I loved Sam (again nixed by hubby!) Joe, and Daniel. So, when son #1 came along, we named him Daniel John. However, the day after he was born, I was holding him and looking at him and came to the strange realization that he was NOT Daniel...he was Joseph! So after being named Daniel for a day, he was named Joseph John (John for his great grandfather).

Twenty-two months later...Daniel DID come along...and I knew this time I was right about the name! Middle name, James, just because I like it.

 

My daughter is named for my husband's grandfather, everyone calls him Sam but real name is Everardo so her first name is Samantha. Sam's wife is called Hope, which is my mother's middle name as well so her middle name is Hope.

My son is named William after my father. My husband wanted Kevin in the name because that was his other grandfather's name, but I used my one absolute veto on this name. DH then suggested Cassidy for a middle name, I have no idea why this name but it was his compromise for Kevin so I took it