My mother wanted to name me Melania. My father wanted Louisa.
My brother was almost Julia.
My mom never thought to look at a naming book.
She decided to name me after one of my dad’s sisters.
I always thought it was so old fashioned.
I asked her what his other sister’s names were.
Bertha and Agnes.
Okay…
Hey, my brother was almost Julia too. It was my dad’s grandmother’s name; I don’t know why they didn’t consider it for me.
I was almost Sarah or Autumn. Both lost out to Rosemary, forever shortened to Rose once I hit high school (not by me, it just happened, but I liked it and it stuck and now I tend to have to stop and think to make sure I’m using my real, full name if I need to sign something). The interesting thing is, my best friend for much of junior high and high school was named Autumn-- how weird would that have been? Also, my mom had an Aunt Rose; her name wasn’t short for anything but I think a lot of people have assumed that I was named after her (maybe even her!). In truth my mom just knew a girl in high school named Rosemary and liked the name.
I have no middle name, but my brother does. Clearly my parents don’t love me.
Monique - which isn’t a bad name in itself, but my last name (thanks to Ellis Island a couple of generations ago) is English with a lot of “K” sounds. I would sound like I was stuttering - “Monique K-K-K”. [The original family name was a very long Polish last name with no visible vowels - the French/Polish mix would have been, um, interesting.]
Margaret Elizabeth or Elizabeth Margaret - combining my grandmothers’ names. Thankfully, they fought over whose name would be first, and neither would budge.
Tracy - which dad nixed: “The kids will call her ‘Dick Tracy - ratatatatatatat’.”
If I was a boy, I would have been Jason or Jasper - as it turned out, my godfather-to-be bought an Irish Setter (really stupid dog, as mom tells me) just before I was born and named it “Jasper”. Another name nixed, thankfully).
My name came from the bridal section of the newspaper a week or so before I was born. Mom saw a picture of a very pretty bride with the spelling change that I have now, and decided it on the spot. Thanks to that woman, I can never buy anything personalized off-the-shelf.
Um, Haley, before you name a boy “Ashley”, you might go to a fifth-grade classroom and take a survey. I think “Ashley” is to the present day what “Sue” was in my day – and most definitely thought of as a girl’s name by kids.
And, whether your future sons’ future schoolmates are right or wrong, they’ll still make him cry.
I know, none of my business, but I just feel sorry for the poor kid.
I was almost “Michael,” too, and I’m really glad I’m not, because I have a ridiculously Irish surname and I might just as well have saved everyone the time and trouble and gotten a job as a stevedore or a bartender. Also, I have an older sister named “Patricia” and the “Pat and Mike” jokes would have gotten really old really fast.
I was almost named Karen, which is rather boring, and if I had been born on Shakespeare’s birthday as expected, my middle name would have been Bard. So on the whole I think I lucked out.
My brother was almost a Sebastian, but my dad put his foot down and he ended up as Paul.
I have an older brother named Dale. If I had been born a boy my Father wanted to name me Chip! But Mother says she would not have gone along with that. Too bad, they could have said “These are our sons, Chip and Dale!”
I don’t think Ashley is primarily a girl’s name - I know people of both sexes with the name Ashley - but it can be both. Then again, so can Shannon, Carol, Tracey, etc.
The (Victoria, Australia) first names index reports more male Ashleys than female - 5832 boys to 1328 girls. If you change the spelling to Ashleigh, you get more girls than boys, ditto Ashlee.
The Ashley I know best is 18 years old, male and has no problems with his name. I think it’s a great name, and would use it or a variant of it for one of my own children - probably a boy. GWTW proves it’s been around for at least the better part of a century, but it’s still quite a modern and fresh sounding name.
Ahem
Sorry about that
::: embarrassed shuffle :::
Here is the missing link from the previous post.
While trying no to shed too much insight into my family’s psyche, I will share with you this.
My father adamantly desired to name me Jack Daniel, after his favourite beverage I presume, and because I was born the day after Valentine’s day, mum wanted to name me Valentino.
Luckily their wicked dreams never did comeabout.
My mom wanted to nmae me Luis, after her father, but my father won out and I was named after him.
I almost named my son Xavier, but decided to name him after myself just because I thought it would be cool to have him with III at the end of his name.
Original Name: Christopher Shawn (pretty good)
Second Name: Willie Austin, named after both grandfathers.(tolerable)
My Name: Willie Eugene, named after 1 gradfather and an uncle I’ve never met. I hate my name, but shortened to Will it’s ok.
I was going to be named after my father or my grandfather.
That would have made me Eugenia or, much much worse, Wallene, my parent’s feminization of Walter.
Wallene!
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed. Neither Eugenia nor Wallene Lewis are good names for a little kid. They aren’t good names for a 30-something woman, either. They named me Tracey instead. This suits me.
My father is Scots, and wanted to call me Angus, and my brother Hamish. My mother put her foot down HARD on those two. I was eventually named after Kirk Stevens (a British tennis or snooker player, I can’t remember now), and my brother was called Ryan.
I did once ask my mother about some other names they thought of for me. They were, horror of horrors, Jared, Kyle and Keiran. I’ve always hated those names, for some unknown reason. As much as I hate my name, I think I still lucked out in the end.
If we were girls, I would have been Charlene, and my brother Chantelle. Similar names, and no doubt my mother would have dressed us identically as well 
I almost got named “Maybelline” after my father took a trip down the makeup aisle while on an errand for my eight-months-pregnant mother. Cooler heads prevailed, and I got Robin Elise. I’m planning to change the spelling to Robyn as part of my divorce.
Robin
My dad wanted to name me Merlin, but my mom wouldn’t hear of it. It’s too bad–that would’ve been a cool name.
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MsRobyn
I recalled your Robin/Robyn debate just a couple of days ago, when the lady serving behind the counter of a store I was in had Robynne on her nametag. Chances are no one ever spells it right first try, but I guess it looks feminine - I would never think that Robynne was a man’s name. Your dilemma came straight to mind when I saw that, and I paused to wonder if you’d considered alternative spellings like Robynne.
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My brothers middle name is actually Bard. He was named after my Grandfather.
If I had been a boy my name would have been Ian Angus. Ian is okay, but Angus? What were they thinking? My sisters would have been Tristan Emrys and Galen Orion. I think that we are all pretty glad that we turned out girls. (I do like Tristan Emrys, though)
I got that covered. I was going to tack a James on as a middle name. That way if the kid doesn’t like Ashley, he can go by James or A.J. (NEVER JIM!)