What did your parents almost name you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This thread about the origins of Dopers RL names got me thinking about two of the names my parents said they almost chose:

Eric - Nothing wrong with it, but they noticed a lot of other folks were naming their sons Eric (they were both schoolteachers, and so had good view of the current naming trends) and they didn’t want me to be sharing a name with ten other kids in class. This led to my father’s choice:

Gilligan:eek: My dad though this sounded cute, as it was similar to the French sound-word for tickling someone (giligili, or something like that). Fortunately, my mom was more of a TV watcher (this was in 1971) and squashed that suggestion pretty quickly. Thanks, mom.

I couldn’t quite escape the TV connection, though. The name I ended up with earned me a lot of comparisons later on with a bald-headed starship captain, but I could live with that. But Gilligan? :shudder:

So, does anyone else have stories about the names their parents almost tagged them with? Do you wish your folks had stuck with their first choices, or are you happy with the name you got?

–sublight.

2

If male, I was going to be Leroy.
My best friend would have been Alistaire.

3

I was almost Christine. My cousin was born four days before me and she got the name.

4

I would have been Kyla Rose. My best friend would have been Waltrout ( :eek: ) had cooler heads not prevailed.

5

I was almost named Rhett after the Gone With the Wind character.

6

The doctor told my parents I was going to be a girl:eek:
My name was going to be Paula.

When I was born a boy, they were at a bit of a loss. My Mother wanted to name me after her favorite Uncle. But his first name was King, and my Dad hated that name. He said it sounded like a dogs name.:stuck_out_tongue: So I guess now I have a dogs name for a middle name! They just dropped the final “a” for the first name.

7

Elizabeth.

But my Dad’s chioce won out.

8

If I had been born three days later (March 17) I would have been named Patricia for St. Patrick’s Day.

9

Guillermo Roberto

Thats Billy Bob, in english.

10

Yikes! My mother wanted to name me Melanie after Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. It’s my mother’s favorite movie.

My father nixed Mom’s decision, as he was afraid that the girls at school might call me nasty names like “Melon-Head”. As it turned out, I did have kind of a large head as a kid, so Dad probably saved me a lot of grief.

11

My mother had originally wanted me named Sydney (or Sidney, I guess) but my dad vetoed that name because it had been one of her old boyfriends.

Then they decided on Janie-Maurice! :eek: After her mother and his mother. Janie is fine, (actually it’s fabulous; I named my daughter this) but Maurice? As in Chevalier? I think not, ya’ll.

Luckily, they laid off the Sterling Big Mouths and went with what is now my name.

12

Oh no, wait’ll you hear this. You’ll love it. I’m the only girl in a family of five children. My mother got to name the boys, my dad - me. Thank god. First son - named after dad, so he’s junior, of course. Hates it to this day. Second son, named John Cameron after John Cameron Swayze(sic); can’t really tell you who he was, I just remember the Timex commercials as a child - ‘takes a licking and keeps on ticking’. Third son, named Brian Keith after the actor on tv show Family Affair. Last son, Marshall Dillon, after the character in Gunsmoke.
I escaped this horror. Otherwise, you could just call me -
Lucille Ball. I kid you not. {{shudders}}

13

If I’d been a boy, I’d have been named Michael - sorry to all the Michaels out there, but I hate this name and I’m so glad I wasn’t a boy! I guess it’s not such a terrible name, but it seemed like all my classmates were named Michael or Michelle. Talk about confusing!

My parents also discussed calling me Kelly. They would have given me the middle name Anne if the combination of my initials wouldn’t have spelt C-A-T. I don’t know how many other names they considered. Carol isn’t so bad - a tad on the boring side. I think Caroline is more dignified-looking, but they liked the idea of having a name that was short and easy to spell. Besides, despite my admiration for it, I have to admit that I’m no Caroline :slight_smile:

14

My father wanted to name me Wolfgang, instead of the fairly common American name I ended up with. My mother would have nothing to do with it. Wonder if it would have affected my personality, I am sure back then I would have caught a lot of grief for it, since WWII was less than 20 years gone when I was born.

15

Did you eat dinner in front of the television quite a bit in your family? Feel lucky no one got named Spock, Maxwell Smart or Hopsing!

16

The doctor said I was going to be a boy, so I probably would’ve been David or Ted (after relatives).

However, I turned out to be female. My mother wanted to name me Katherine, my Dad said, “Just name her Katie.”

I have a nickname as my given first name–but some people call me Katherine anyway.

17

Aaaaaaaaahhhh! Are we brothers? My mother wanted to name me “Rhett,” but my father convinced her to name me after Robert Mitchum instead of Clark Gable.

18

The worst part is that my last name is Butler. I would have been Rhett Butler. This is not a joke.

19

My name was almost going to be Malcom. Talk about a suck ass name, IMHO anyways.

20

My name - even right up until I was born - was actually supposed to be Rachel. But when my parents rung up the rest of the family to tell them it was a girl, they didn’t mention the name - so, my brother decided to take it upon himself to inform them that I was called Melissa, instead. Since that was the second choice, my parents decided to stick with it.

To this day, I am STILL holding that one against my brother.