Inspired by a comment on the thread about translating your name, I happen to know that the name my parents had chosen for me it I had been a boy was Natan Chaim. I don’t know what Natan appealed to them, but at least they were consistent in going with the Hebrew version, and naming me “Natan” instead of “Nathan,” like they named me Rivkah instead of Rebecca. The middle name is the same-- Chaim is the male version of Chaya.
Interestingly, when my brother was born 3 1/2 years later, they named him Joshua, and not Natan. Not Yehoshua, either. I was always I little jealous of him over the “not Yehoshua” thing. I got over it, but when we were kids, and in public school, which was full of Joshes, and I was the only Rivkah, I was jealous.
If my brother had been a girl, I think my parents had settled on Miriam, but I’m not sure they were totally good with it. He might have come home with a last minute change, as much as my parents were the types who like to be over-prepared.
I have a cousin named David, born seven weeks after me. Our moms were sisters. I don’t know if we both would have had the same name, or if my aunt had another name on tap in case I’d been a boy.
My sister, born in 1959, would have been Dwight, named for the POTUS.
As well as being a popular name locally, and the name of my father’s favorite brother, my birthdate took place next to a yearly novena (nine days of prayer) and two pilgrimages dedicated to the saint.
We refer to St Francis Xavier as “the universal Navarrese”: there are others who are well-known in specific areas of geography or knowledge, but none who’s so widely famous.
No idea, but I do know that my mother originally wanted to name me Bruce. She caught all kinds of shit from her coworkers because that was the boss’s name, so she changed it.
Given that my older sister was named for her mother and my dad’s sister (Mary Martha), and I was lnamed for my dad’s father, I suspect that Ida (my dad’s late mother) would have been on the leaderboard. Ida been OK with that. Anne would have been incontention, too, being the name of my mom’s mother and a sistger.
No decisions had been made about names before I was born. Mom was pretty out of it, and ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks after I got to go home*, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the name I have. She’d always sworn to not use my name for a son since it was so common on Dad’s side of the family. She didn’t really realize till weeks later just what name she’d agreed to while laying in that hospital bed.
For a definition of home that means living with my grandparents till Mom was home. They covered while Dad handled my two sisters and a very sick wife in the hospital.
Since I’m Michelle, I’m assuming I would have been Michael. But not too long ago, I found out my dad had wanted to call me Roxanne - kinda wish he’d won that battle.
Scott Michael. Not sure where the Scott came from but Michael was my dad’s name. I wound up going to high school with a guy named Scott Same-last-name-as-me.
My sister would have been Andrew Michael. Poor dad finally got someone named after him when my oldest niece Mikaylah was born.