Tuesday, September 15, 2009

name game

per my sister's college roommate's suggestion I was named after gina lollobrigida:





I'm curious - were you named after anyone or have a story about where your name came from?

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

My parents didn't think ahead on my name - thought it up at the hospital. And "Emily" was the #1 baby name for YEARS...so I was always a #2 in class! Believe me, we thought ahead on my sons' names! My sons middle names both have a musical component - Rivers (for the frontman for Weezer) and Davis (as in Miles Davis).

My maiden name was Hendrix so I often heard growing up "Is your dad, Jimi"? Funny enough, that IS my dad's name!

Anonymous said...

I was named after my Great (great great great) Aunt Amanda. She was my mother's favorite relative hands down.

She was a formal old lady from Baltimore city who lived in a row house with a spiral staircase in the middle. She was born to a good family, but somehow married a blind man (who my mother never met - nor ever saw a picture of). She always wore a corset, had an Afghan Hound, and painted china as a hobby to raise money for charity. She also made loads of clothes and doll clothes for my mom (but her mom gave it all away as soon as she felt she outgrew it).

My mom is so jazzed that I turned out to be a creative person like my namesake!

The Yellow Ribbon said...

I'm showing my age here but I was named after Vanessa Williams who was Miss America when I was born.

My parents wanted a name that would sound good in English and Spanish (their first language) and my siblings (who are 18-24 years older than me!) wanted a name that wasn't too ethnic sounding and went went with our last name.

Husband and I have discussed future baby names. I just insist on a name that my mom can pronounce or not mangle too much.

Gina said...

Yes! My mother is from Italy and called me Gina after La Lollo. I was very happy that my name was not Brigitte. My little sister was named after Brigitte Bardot with her big, well you know! All the boys always teased her with that. :p
My children have very ordinary names.;)

Wild Wild West Drive said...

My parents could not decide what to name me, and one day while driving in the car with my grandparents it was suggested by my grandmother that the street they were driving on would be good. I have been Angela (after Angela Drive in South Bend IN) ever since.

Becky said...

I was named Rebecca Elizabeth after 2 of my Great Grandmothers, Rebecca Bron (who married a Byrd!) and Eudra Elizabeth Spicer Holbrook. So glad I wasn't given Eudra Brown! With the maiden name of Porter I would have sounded like a beer!

I was very careful on my kids names. My son has his dad's initials and is Jordan for the character in Giant. And Katharine Grace is for actresses Hepburn and Kelly!

Anonymous said...

I was named for a Donovan song. I suppose Jennifer Juniper was lucky, as they could have named me Sunshine Superman.

Unknown said...

I was named after Stefanie Powers. My sister after Maria Shriver.

caffeinatedcupcakes said...

My mom was always a HUGE music fan - especially Aerosmith, so it was no surprise that she named me "Elissa" after Elissa Perry [Joe Perry's ex-wife] and my little brother "Tyler" after Steven Tyler. My little sister was named "Alana" after Alana Stewart [Rod Stewart's ex-wife].

Pink'sModernQuilts said...

hi! delurking...my Mom named me after an 80's romance novel she was reading named Shanna. Romance as in the cover was of a heaving, big bosomed woman wrapped in the arms of a Fabio-esque, shirtless hottie...if I had been a boy Mom would've probably named me Rjork after the love interest. I tried to read the book in high school but I couldn't get past the "love" parts!

Jeanne said...

My parents didn't really have a nme picked out (though my mom was always threatening Penelope, because my grandmother didn't like it and pronounced it Pen-a-lope). My older brother actually named me when I was born. He suggested I get named after both my mom and dad. So I am Jeanne Marie.(dad was called Gene, short for Eugene-which was his middle name; mother is named Mary).

Jan Pope said...

I have a good one for you. I was named after my father's ex-girlfriend (crush, is more like it). She is my mother's 2nd cousin, although my father didn't know it at the time. I asked my mother how she could let him do that and she said that she didn't actually know he had named me because she was still under anesthesia when he did it. He did offer to let her rename me, but she stuck with the original name.

The Frog's Eyebrows said...

I was named after the character Jennifer Marlowe from the sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" and my brother was named after the Monty Python sketch "Scott of the Sahara".

Rosa said...

My mother had the bright idea to name my brothers and I so that we had the same initials as my father, RJ. My older brother is Rudy Joseph and I was supposed to be Rhonda Jeanine. *Shudder*

Luckily my Godmother stepped in and named me after Brenda Lee. Not much better, but Brenda is better than Rhonda, I think. (Who's named Rhonda anyway??)

Martha said...

Growing up in a good, Catholic family, my siblings and I are all named after Saints: Jean Ann, Sara Louise, Martha Helen, Mary Kathleen, & Lawrence Anthony. For 16 years I have worked at an elementary school with over 600 students and there has never been a Martha -- I like that!

Hilary Blackwood said...

After Mom was threatening to name me Flavia, my dad called the shots after watching How the West Was Won TV show and named me Hilary....thank you Dad! But, with a last name of Jackson and being a child of the 80's I caught a bunch of slack about Michael Jackson...and in the 90's when Clinton was president caught a bunch of slack about him...but nothing would have rivaled the slack I'd caught with FLAVIA....

Cobalt Violet said...

My mom took off to Hawaii with a friend when she was 20. It was suppose to be for two weeks and they stayed for two years ... surfing and singing with Don Ho. (Anyone old enough for that reference?!) Her friend's name was Lucinda and she named me after her. My mom however was named after Carole Lombard.

By the way I can't get over Gina Lollabrigida's waist in photo #1. Holy smokes!

bec said...

Ooh, I love all these comments! I was going to be Beatrice- but my Dad stepped in (thanks Dad) and I got Rebecca after a relative in the family tree. MNy middle name is Carrie, as is my grandma's whom I'm close too. But I like to think i'm "Carrie not the kind of girl you'd marry- That's me" AbbA song).

If I was a boy, I was to be Jed after the Beverly Hillbillies!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yep!
I was named Carole after Chuck Berry's song.
My kids also have been named after famous people: Emma because of Emma Peel, the wonderful and clever girl working with John Steed in "The Avengers" series; Clara because of Alain Chamfort, a french singer who wrote a nice song called "Clara veut la lune"; last but not least, Aidan because of Carrie Bradshaw's cute boyfriend in "Sex and the City".
Yes, I do love series ;)

Carole, Paris - France

AlwaysInspired said...

I was named after my Grandpa! His first name is Dean and his middle name is Arnold. So my mom put it together and got Deana! It gets mangled often, but I just answer anyway. It is Dean- a not Deanna or Dina! People say I was named right because I have a few personality quirks in common with my grandpa too.

Unknown said...

Wow!! I love reading all these stories, and while i don't know exactly why my parents named me Jennifer, i am thankful that i didn't turn out to be a boy. For that, they were saving the name "Stoney". And both my parents worked for the copper mines in AZ at the time. Whew! Dodged a bullet there, eh?

Being said that i have one of the most popular names on the Earth--i feel your pain, Emily!--i suffered for years at school with a last name that started with W, so i always got the ugly, leftover "Jenny" nicknames of the 70's and 80's. And i am soooo not a "Hi! Like, my name is Jenny!" kinda Jenny.

My hubbie, a Michael of the 60's, and i decided we'd name our children with more obsecure names--now i don't know which is worse: having to correct people because they call you "Jenny", or having to explain your name the way we have to with our daughter's name, "No, no, it's like Fiona, but with an R."

Maybe The Artist Formerly...blah blah blah has the right idea. Maybe a symbol is the coolest form of address--atleast people can't mispronounce it. :o) I guess as long as you have the cool velvet pants to go along with it. I could never make it work. Believe me, i am just not that cool enough. :o)

Great pictures over the past few days!!! I love 'em, i love 'em!
Next time you're accepting orders, i have to have a copy of The Servateria!! Fondly, Whit

Joy said...

My great aunt wanted my Mom to name me Penelope! Thank goodness I escaped that, although now I think I could've rocked that too. Instead they named me Joy after my Dad's mother who had passed away when she was young. I love my name because it also describes an outlook I try to live up to.

My grandmother and her sisters were less lucky. Their mother read a lot and named them after characters in the books she was reading so she ended up being named Mescal, like the cactus. She changed her own name when she was two and told the story that she told everyone that if they called her Mescal again that she would chase them around with a hot fire poker!

Alyssa said...

I was named after the Sweet Alyssum flower. At the time when I was born Alyssa was a very unique name, now I hear it almost every time I go out. And it is 99% of the time to a girl 5 or under. That is why if I ever have children I want to name them all very unique names, so they don't have to turn their heads and think someone is talking to them, every five minutes when shopping.

Sarah or Semmy said...

I as given a first and middle name of two ladies in the Bible. Or at least that is what I thought until one time when a woman asked who I was I named for? I started to say the names of the ladies in the Bible, but Mum interupted me by saying, "She was named for her two Grandmothers"! I didn't know their real names, they were always Grandmas to me and every adult called them by their nic-names. called

Laura-IH said...

My mom LOVES Little House on the Prairie, so that is why she named me Laura! : )

Sarah-Jo said...

a little late but better than never...

Sarah-Jo = my parents watched too much Petticoate junction! ha!

Unknown said...

Hillary after my mom's favorite book when she was a girl, Hillary's Island. The Hillary in the story is a boy who hides away on an island. Pretty cool!

Nora said...

What great stories! I was named after my great-great-great gramma that walked The Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

del4yo said...

So many stories!

I was named Delphine form a children book called "Les contes du Chat Perche" ( The Wonderful Farm) that my mom really liked as a girl. No wonder I like to write and illsutrate stories for children :)

I didn't like my first name before moving from France to California. I find very cute the way my friends pronounce it here!

Flustered Flamingo said...

I was named after Lacy J. Dalton. My mom really liked her music at the time.