What Were You Going To Be Named?

I’m Rebecca Aimee but I was supposed to be Memphis Hunter! I think I would have turned out way cooler as a Memphis 🙂

My parents said if I was a boy they were considering Christ, pronounced like Chris but with a ‘t’. So glad I came out a girl!

Kristina does the Internets

ahh! i love hearing what other names were options for people (love Arlo’s other name options especially!)

if i was a boy i was supposed to be joeseph frederick after my grandpa and great grandpa…but instead i was a girl so they named me laura rachel– which have ZERO family meaning!

my mom wanted to name me Nora or Rachel but my dad didn’t like either of those names so they compromised and named me Laura instead with Rachel as a middle name! 🙂 🙂

My name is Anna (middle name is Lynn because 1992). My parents always knew I was a girl so didn’t even delve into boy names but my mom really wanted to name me Austyn. My dad totally nixed it! I’ve actually met two lady Austyn/Austens since and it totally fits them! My mom also wanted to name me Jenna but my aunt had a dog named Jenna 😂 My dad really loved Stephanie and Emily. I’m not entirely sure where Anna came from, I think my mom just liked it. I am so happy that’s what they picked because I’m definitely an Anna and I love that it’s timeless/ageless.

My name is Nicole but they were also considering Sabrina, Whitney, and Sloane! I know that Sloane is a cooler-sounding name now and I’m actually pretty into it, but when I was younger I was absolutely horrified that my parents had considered naming me Sloane (sounded too much like “slow” to me at the time!). I really do love Nicole though, and I think it suits me 🙂

I love this topic! My name is obviously Paige, but if I was a boy it was going to be Kevin. Mu son is Kyle, but would have been Chloe is he was a girl, and my Daughter is Kinsley (we hated the name Chloe by the time we got pregnant with her!), but we never had a boy name picked of her!

Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com

I was supposed to be named Shaina, but my father worried that the alliteration (my maiden name starts with Schae-) would be too much. His actual quote was something like, “Well, if she’s a phone operator and has to say her name all the time, that’ll be hard to do!” High hopes he had, I guess! 😛

I just named my son Luca and it was the only boy name we had! We didn’t find out what we were having and had a couple of girls names that we may use in the future. I was going to be a Kimberly, but my mom didn’t want me to have Kim as a nickname. Ive always hated Brenda until recently – I always felt that it was an old lady name. I’m liking it more since it’s not heard too often (or maybe bc I’m turning into an old lady … Ha!). If I was a boy, I would have been Trevor or Dustin.

So my name is obviously Mia but if I were a boy, I would’ve been Luke (which I don’t like, haha). My mom had considered Miranda as a first name, but nixed it when her friend said “Oh! You can call her Randy!” lolololol

I am Kayla Ellen – Kayla after the Days of Our Lives character Kayla Brady and Ellen for my mom’s best friend and my grandmother – I’m glad because it definitely suits me. I have a sister who is 10 years younger than me named Aubrey and my mom always says that Aubrey has been her #1 girl’s name since she was a teenager. I always ask her if she took one look and knew I wasn’t good enough to be an Aubrey lol

My parents really liked Phoebe. I’m glad they went with Chloe because I really can not see myself being named Phoebe. My best friend’s dad wanted to name her Elvis Vance if she was a boy, but since she was a girl, he and her mom decided on Ruby.

When my parents got pregnant with me, they didn’t want to find out the sex. After three boys, they assumed they would be having another so they only really had boys names prepared! It came down to a literal coin toss between Connor and Dylan, but to their surprise – they got their first girl!!! Before deciding on Blythe, they were going to name me Shannon. I’m so happy with the name they chose for me, it’s unique and different and always made me feel special. (Even though the Baristas at Starbucks are forever calling me Blake – #BlytheIsARealName!) I guess I also lucked out with a good last name – Ivory. Everyone seems to think that’s my first name and I can’t tell you how many emails that get addressed as “Hi Ivory” OH WELL! I’ll take either or

-Blythe

So my parents were hippies…who did not know the babies sex. Mom wanted to name me Star and my dad wanted a boy for a first child. Long story short mom had such a quick birth when my dad saw me he named me Shannon. For a long time I didn’t like it because all the Shannons that I meet were boys. It took me until middle school to meet another female Shannon. Now I totally rock my name and am so glad I wasn’t named Star. Thanks dad.

If I were a boy I would have been Matthew Ryan. Which they switched for my younger brother who is Ryan Matthew. I am Michelle Jeannine, Michelle after the Beatles song. Jeannine for my moms best friend Jean.

Our Daughter is Faye Catherine. Faye because we liked it, like literally the only name my husband and I agreed on and Catherine after my mom. She was almost Faye Valentine because we met on Valentine’s Day. We ditched it when we found out Faye Valentine was an anime character and also the name of an existing porn star. 😬

Both my parents wanted me named after themselves! My mom’s name is Julie, and growing up she always liked the name Julia better, so she wanted Julia for a girl. My dad was adamant about naming me Arthur Eugene the third (I know) if I were a boy, because he is Arthur Eugene Junior and my grandpa is Arthur Eugene Senior. My mom hated that for a baby, and luckily they had two daughters and never had to have that argument!

I was named Morgan Alisha when I was born but six months later, while looking at a map of London, my mom insisted that I should be named Chelsea, after the London neighborhood and also after Jane Fonda’s character in On Golden Pond. So they officially changed my name to Chelsea Morgan Alisha. I still have Christmas ornaments that have Morgan engraved on them, though. Haha.

My mom has always planned on having a little girl named Taffy. When she was pregnant with me, she realized my dad’s mom’s evil orange Persian cat was named Taffy and she couldn’t possibly name me after an evil cat. So she changed it to Taffany and then settled on Tiffany. 😂 I’m pretty sure that was for the best. I can’t imagine me doing my job with a name like Taffy.

My full name is Brianne Marie but I go by Brie because Brianne always seemed too fancy. My whole family still calls me Brianne and it confuses people who legit thought my name was just Brie. The other name for me was going to be Kara after my Aunt Karen (which as a child I was obsessed with and named all my dolls Kara cause even at a young age I wasn’t too into my name.) If I was a boy it would have been Brian…my mom was really stuck on that Irish name for her Irish looking babe. Marie is after both my Grandmas, on one side first name Mary and on the other side middle name Marie.

It took my parents daaaayyyyss to name me. The other options were Clare, Noel, Jessica, and Kjell (I don’t even know…) but they couldn’t agree on any of those. Finally, the day we were going home, there was a movie on that had a character named Sydney who played the cello. So that’s how I got my name, and also why I had to take cello lessons as a kid.

Also, my brother was named Kyle for about a day. When my dad left the hospital my mom went back to the nurse’s station and changed it to Tyler.

As an 80’s baby, my dad wanted to name me “Jem” – yup, after the cartoon! Instead my parents settled on “Kimber” (Jem’s sister in the show), and my middle name is “Lin”. So, naturally people see my name as Kimber L, and I always get called “kimberly” by default. I actually LOVE my name Kimber, because it’s super unique!

I’m Kathleen Clare but go by Kate.

Other girls names considered: My dad like Kent (after a local new anchor) and my mom liked Lauren but felt there was too much alliteration with our last name that starts with “la”.

If I was a boy, I would have been Thomas Joseph– TJ for short.

all i know is that my dad wanted to name me after his mother (RIP) whose name is……..Refugio.
i love her and all, but im thankful my mom stepped in.
i just dont know where they got it from….nor my middle name.

Same thing happened with me! My parents were going to name me Marissa, but my dad’s cousin ended up using the name for their baby. I’m glad that I’m a Krista instead!

I’ve got a doozy for ya.
My dad was so convinced I would be a boy, he told EACH of his THREE aunties plus his mother that he would name me after them if I were a girl. The choices were (wait for it) Ismineie, Adolpha, Aspacia, or Calliope (my Yaya). PS all of them hated their name. When I was born a girl, he said I was named for their father, Christos (Kristina) and I got Calliope for a middle name.
The boy choices were Michael (his father, my Papu) or (WAIT AGAIN) Plato.
So. We’re Greek.

I love this topic! I’m always so interested to hear stories behind names. 🙂 Both of my parents have super common names, and we have an even more common last name. They named my sister Lauren thinking it was unusual.. but nope. There were like 4 in her preschool class. They planned to name me Sara. However, a guy with the same name as my Dad in our town was wanted for check fraud, which gave my Dad a ton of trouble… so they decided to name me Anitra so I wouldn’t have to deal with having a common name! Instead I get to deal with explaining to everyone how to pronounce my super weird name, and often just answer to Anita because I’m called that as often as my real name some days!

I have a friend who’s last name is “Young” and her mother fought tooth and nail to name her Teddy-Bear and her younger sister Forever. 🤷🏼‍♀️

My mom knew I was a girl and had chosen the name Joanna for me but her nurse was named Elizabeth and since my mom had never hear that name before (I know!) in Mexico decided to name me after the nurse. LOL!

I have an out of the box name, Iris Emille, so my kids had to have unique names too. My daughter is Adalia Clementine and my son is Linus Alan (Alan after my dad). He was going to be Linus Oliver and we dodged a bullet with that one, as you cannot throw a rock and not hit an Oliver now…not that I throw rocks at small children…

My parents were thinking of naming me Sally Edna after both of my grandmother’s. Thankfully they didn’t because my dad joked that if they had my nickname could have been “Salad”! Instead they named me after themselves. My dad’s name is Lawrence and my mom’s is Marybeth so I’m Laura Beth. I guess it’s better than Salad…

My first name was suppose to be Liverpool after the city my parents met in, but my grandma got wind of it and gave my parents $50 to make it my middle name. I think it would of been such a great first name. I plan on naming my first girl that. But I do have a great name–Lauren Liverpool.

I’m Mia Rose (Italian for my rose) but I might have been Giulietta (after the car) or James (if a boy).

I was Scott too! Scott Joseph- as in, that was my name until I was born because my parents didn’t find out either and my mom was convinced I was a boy so they didn’t even have a girls name picked out. My dad wanted to name me Kelly too but they finally agreed on Marie. Funny coincidences👍🏻

I was originally going to Amy but my parents toured the maternity wing and there were a lot of Amys there! Fast forward to a shopping trip and they see a baby tshirt that said Bionic Baby and they loved the name Jamie – the Bionic Woman! So, I’m Jamie!

For my daughter, who was born in February, it took us 3 days after she was born. We went in with one name, Lenora, and I was going to call her Lenny. At first sight of her we both knew she wasnt a Lenora so on Day 2, I go through my names list on my phone while staring at her and nothing fit until we came to the name Darcy! It just resonated off of her that was her name! We looked up the meaning to make sure it wasnt anything weird and the popularity to make sure it wasnt too popular and now we have our precious Darcy!

My name is Ilja. My parents came on this name by a book from a babyskincare brand. It was an name idea book haha. Not really a meanful name. If I was a boy, I would be named Bastiaan. I am from Holland and is a populair name outhere.
Ilja is by the way a name from Russia, its a boys name, but my parents liked it for a girl haha.

My name is Sawyer, and it was going to be that even if I ended up a boy! Growing up I went by “Sawyer Beth” because 2 names is the southern way. My older brother’s name is Shelby, which apparently was originally a boy name, but is now usually a girl name! He was also going to be Shelby either way. I love being Sawyer though, it’s so me. (Pronounce Saw-yer, not Soy-yer)I can’t imagine being anything else. I am often just called “Saw” or “SawSaw” by close friends. I love usually boy names for girls or viseversa.

My grandma wanted me to be Cheyanne but my mom mixed that one fast, thankfully!!!

Xx

My brother and I each have single syllable for first names, as my dad doesn’t like names that can be shortened. But my mom gave us each one common name and one unusual name. My first name (Quinn) is rather unusual, and my middle name is Audrey. My brother is Ross (common) Avery (unusual). My mom had wanted to name me Lily, but when said with my last name she thought it sounded like the name of an exotic dancer 😂

I’m Paige Poppe, but I was almost Petra Poppe. My mom was watching the ’92 summer Olympics right when I was about to be born in August, and it was the name of a Russian gymnast, LOL! They obviously were liking alliterations, but I’m glad they chose Paige. Crystal was also a top contender and in the 90’s I SO wished that was my name because it was my babysitter’s name too haha

Love this topic! The comments are so fun

x, Paige

They wanted to name me after their names merged into one (a legit name for Orthodox Christians), but the priest said he can’t give a child the names of its parents, so they went with one of my grandmother’s names as the custom is where I’m from.
So my name is Urania, which was how my grandma was called, and they decides to call me Rania (and now although the original, full name is from the Greek mythology), many foreigners ask if it’s Arabic- you know, like Queen Rania! Hah!

Oh man…I was born (May 27th) one day after my parent’s anniversary (May 26th) but my mom went into labor the day before (May 25th).

My parents, being the supreme jokers they are, had their fingers crossed I was going to be an anniversary baby, so they could name me Annie Versary Aronson. So, my name was going to be Anniversary.

Instead, I tortured my mother for over 48 hours until they had to go in and pull me out. Now I’m named after a great auntie and a Beatles song.

I was going to be Morgan, as my parents thought that named paired with my last name made me sound like an author. They didn’t go with it, but I still grew up to love writing.

Astrid was another option, after some song apparently, but they ended up using that for our cat. I’m not too particularly fond of the name they DID choose, but I still prefer it over the other options!

http://www.thesmalladventurer.blogspot.com.au/

I was always Allison but if I was a boy I would’ve been Fane! My mom still tries to push it when we talk about babies…

My parents had a boy name for me and a girl name for my brother. I think they improvised both times!
Arlo is a beautiful name! Funny for a boy and so sofisticated for a grown man! I love it!

So, my name is Lisagrace – my mom straight up squished Lisa and Grace together and called it a name 😉 I was going to be Noah if I was a boy BUT the funny thing is that my parents were going to name BOTH of my older brothers “Alyssa Joy” if they were girls.
But somehow, they forgot about that name choice when they had me?! Ha! So, my younger sister got the name, Alyssa Joy, and I’m constantly introducing myself like this:
“My name is Lisagrace, yep, all of it, it’s weird.”

My sister was supposed to be Elizabeth Rose, after two of our great-grandmothers, but my mom in her post-labor frenzy decided that Elizabeth was too common, and changed the name to Isabel Rose. My mom was not happy when the nurse at my sister’s two-week checkup told her that she was the third Isabel/Isabelle to come in that day! I got Elizabeth instead as my middle name, and Katherine after our other great grandmother as my first name.

My parents liked unusual names which was really unusual in 1960 when I was born. They got my name from my mother ‘s sister’s daughter’s ex-husband’s half sister. It is pronounced John-el. My mother was going to name me Lillian as a middle name after her mother but she said she never liked her name and suggested Alison instead. My son is named Evan which is my father’s name Van with the E from Edwin after my husband’s father. His middle name is Joseph after his great grandfather. we realized later that there are several grandsons and great grandsons with Joseph in their names. If Evan had been a girl, he would have been Corwynn Allison. No reason for Corwynn except that we liked it.

My full name is Katherine Elsie, because my mom wanted me to have a name that I could use to be a doctor (aka not something super girly) but she didn’t want something so “formal” for every day life. So my aunt actually came up with the idea of squishing my names together and thus I became kelsie. When I was little I HATED being called Katherine but now I don’t care so much, I’m definitely a kelsie though. My dad wanted to name me Reba but mom nixed that! Also if I was a boy I would have been Jack, which I always thought was funny since my older brother is Daniel and we would have been Jack Daniel 😂

My Mum was big into meanings when it came to mine and my sisters first names. Erin means peace (I often tease her about it as I am not peaceful at all!) and my Mum taught a little irish girl called Erin so she loved the name, Maree is from my aunty. I was almost going to have the middle name lynette which is my Mum’s middle name until she realised my intitials would spell ELF which she wasn’t having haha!
My middle sister is called Megan Joy and Megan means pearl and Joy was my grandmothers middle name and my youngest sister is called Jocelyn Claire, Jocelyn means pure and just and claire is after a close friend.
For boy names my Mum liked Mark or Christopher but they never had to use them.
My cousin and I were talking about future kid names and she really doesn’t like common names where as her boyfriend doesn’t like anything uncommon. I like a mix of common and uncommon, but tend to come to back to classic names that won’t go out of style. I’ve always liked the names Nova, Clara and Quin and more recently Alya (pronouced Ar-lee-a) and Esme for girls. And for boys Lucas, Marc/Marcus, and Jaxon.

My mother was set on calling me Maria Fernanda, because in Mexico it’s very popular to nickname them MariFer and says that ever since she was a child she loved how it sounded… I have two older brother’s and she had no idea what she was having, but she was comvinced it was another boy, so to her surprise I turned out to be a girl. Well, as it turned out, no one was more surprised than my grandmother, when she showed up and asked the nurse at the front desk if my mother had delivered and was told yes, a girl… my mother says she could hear her screaming from down the hall in excitement. Once she came into the room and asked my mother what she would name me, she hated the idea of her new baby granddaughter having such a harsh sounding name and asked my mother to name me Daniela, to call me Dani instead and since my mother could see how happy she was over me being a girl, she decided to let her name me. I’ve always been very grateful to my grandmother for that, because I’m not a huge fan of Maria Fernanda, sorry :-/

My mom was in her early 20’s when she found out she was (5 months!) pregnant with me. She was dating my biological father-a musician-at the time and decided to strike up a deal. She got to pick the girl name, my father the boy name. My mom’s choice was a simple Jenna Noelle (although he tried to convince her to choose Jasmine, but with the spelling JAZZmine). He picked Jimi Hendrix. Yes, first name Jimi, middle name, Hendrix. You better believe my mom was relieved to hear “it’s a girl!” during my birth! 14 years later my father had a son who he tried to name Doctor Maximus. His wife initially agreed but later on chickened out and they settled on a very Italian Anthony Benedict.

Love this topic! My parents both have common names (they even rhymes with each other, haha), so when they had kids they wanted to come up with something unique! I’ve never met another Bronte, but I’ve heard they exist (Bueller? Bueller?). My boy name was also going to be really cool: Theron (family name, and also never met someone named Theron). My sisters middle name was created from her boy name, Ryan, which became Riane (like Diane with an R). I love the naming process that my parents went through, because I know how much thought they put behind it, and I frequently get asked about my name and it’s origin!