What do you think your parents were/were not thinking when they chose your names?

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

Mine were thinking...

Ooo that's a nice unusual name from a book I read that I've never seen before (Dad).

Let's go with a Welsh spelling for the middle name.

They were not thinking...

Noone will know how to spell either names and they will have to be spelled out every time. Tedious.

We live in Wales but not in a Welsh area and don't speak Welsh.

I come from a big family (loads of siblings) all our names are lovely and apart from one of us, quite unusual. There are some family surnames/maiden names used as well.
My middle name is beautiful and never appears on any name list (well it cropped up once in 1970 something) and the reason behind it is fantastic.

But this is all meaningless because I'm not going to reveal any actual names.

My good friends chose to name..

Dd after one late grandmother

Dd2 after another late grandmother.
And (contentiously because they saw it as a fitting memorial and paying respect but other family members found it hurtful)
Dd2 after a late sister of the mum.

I’m named after my paternal Grandmother, but my middle name is my mums name. I like both my names.

My parents though: hey thats a popular name that absolutley everyone is using, lets use it too!

They weren't thinking: how annoying to have the same name as 6 other people in your class growing up and being forever known as Firstname Surname.

This is why my DC names are nowhere near being in the top 100 names.

With my name being so unusual (one celeb has it and I've met 2 people with it my entire life) we did go for top 100 names. Wanted names a nickname could come from too.

Dds is named after 'names we've come across in the past that we have liked and can be easily spelled/said'.
Middle name was name of the midwife but chosen because it was pretty.
Dh later told me her first name was also one of his first (primary school) girl friends. No other children in her year with that name but noticeably unusual.

Dd2 was named after her sister saying she liked a name and wanted to call her sister that. We had no idea it would trend massively that year and that she would be in a year with 5 others sharing that name and in a class with 3 others. She says it's a 'basic' name and says she wished we called her Lydia!
I blame dh for agreeing that he liked her name suggestion and then not thinking any further. It does go v well with dd1s name.
Middle name is after dh's aunt who is still alive (sort of- aunt's name is exceptionally unusual and is as a result of a slightly tipsy father trotting off to register it under the influence and spelling it wrong - she goes by one of 2 nicknames as a result.
We chose one of the nicknames for dds middle name. Q a common middle name actually. We mostly chosen because it is a pretty name as a middle name.

Mine were thinking ‘wouldn’t it be hilarious to have funny initials. I know, we’ll use a different first name to the one we want to use but always call her by her middle name!’

They were not thinking

but she’ll have to explain to every teacher
every job application
every mortgage application
every holiday

why she isn’t called her first name

Good friends have used ‘our’ name. Bugger, we’ll have to think of something else. DF - ‘ My dad always said if I was a girl I’d have been BestIsWest’

Just as well as said friends daughter had the most popular name that year, same surname and was in the same class as me.

Mine were thinking "oh that's the most dull and boring name we can possibly thing of" and not "we're going to divorce in a couple of years and move her to an area where everyone will mispronounce and misspell it even though it's really bloody easy"

Mine weren't thinking. They were convinced I was a boy so only had boys names. Dad wanted to just call me said boys name regardless, mum wasn't convinced. They argued. Then a nun who was friends with my grandmother pointed out the Saints day I was born on. They feminised the name and went with that. Could have been worse.

Mine were thinking 'oh we want to name Winter after a close relative that has died. Only thing is that she had a beautiful French name, so we'll anglicise to the most boring, old fashioned English name'.

Mine thought "let's copy my Cousin and his DW, whose (then youngest) DD has this name AND more importantly let's also copy my Brother and SIL, and give our DD the same name as their youngest, who incidentally, our baby shares a birthday with and will share cake, candles, party hats, balloons and even fucking holidays with for years won't that be fun?"

Zero thought process.

And I hate my third-hand name.

After tolerating it for decades I changed it by deed poll 10 yrs ago to something with no links to either family.

Our names are Old Testament, rarely used outside the Jewish community and we're not Jewish.

They didn't think through giving us the same initial. There's a valentine's card from c. 1986 which we still don't know who it was intended for😆

Thankfully my mum overruled my dad for once in her life!

Mine were thinking, ooh, this national event is happening when baby is due, 4 year old DS (my DB) has been learning about it at school, let's ask him for suggesttions for a name that reflect this historical event.

Clue - I was born a week before decimal currency came in!

Having said that, I had a craving for Whimpy chips when I was pregnant with DD (now 24) so DH used to look at the female staff name badges and suggest them as names for DD. DD almost ended up being called Nicky after a Whimpy waitress!!!

My mum was definitely thinking "I've got an unusual name and have had to spell it out every time I tell someone new what it is... don't want that for my child". She was not thinking "she will be one of at least four girls/women called this in every school/university/job she has all her life".

All things considered though, I'd rather have a boring name than be spelling it out/telling people how to pronounce it. At least my name is classic.

My father was reading a book about Napoleon when I was born and suggested I be named after his wife.

Were thinking: popular TV personality has had a daughter with this name, what a lovely name. Were not thinking: the British public seem to lack basic reading comprehension for any name over a single syllable and with letters that aren't that common in Western names, and will either change the spelling entirely or add in extra letters.

I think you need to correct your username

Mine decided what they were going to call me, and made it my middle name!! I've never really understood why, though they said it was because if they did it the other way round then my initials would spell some extremely obscure abbreviation to something. Something only they could have thought of.

So I have had a lifetime (56 years old now) of explaining that I am known by my middle name. I've thought of swapping the names round and changing it by deed poll (I would drop my first name if I were to go down that route) but it is on so many things now and in so many places that I quail at the thought of doing that.

I wish I had just made the change when I was 18, but I was a fairly sheltered and naive teenager with no internet to inform me in those days, and no means of my own to find out and get on with it.

I'm fine with the name my parents chose to use, I'm just irritated that it is my middle name and I have so often had to explain myself.

Nowadays whenever I hear that someone is thinking of calling a child by their middle name I just want to scream "DON'T DO IT!"

Call your child by the name you register them as. The name on their birth certificate.

I was premature and I think it was just sheer panic - shit, she’s here already, we need a name! I don’t have a middle name, they only managed to come up with one…

My mother (drug addled and probably drunk) was thinking “Oh look at the pretty sky with all the starlight…”

She was not thinking “Starlight is a fucking stupid name for a child and she’ll get ridiculously bullied”

Thankfully my Nana was thinking and reminded my mother of a character name from a book she loved which became my middle name, then from age 14 my known as name.

My children all have classic names. Mostly longer ones so they had multiple options for nicknames.

My DPs were thinking: BIL&SIL stole our favourite name 2 months ago so we'd better find another one quickly. (My name is much nicer than cousin's.)

Same @Topseyt123

Its a complete PITA!

This pregnancy was a bad idea, this relationship isn't going to last, this baby is already ruined, this child will be the final straw on everything. Lets name the child something unusual that's usually a negative, that sums up what a bad idea it all was.

Boy named Sue principles, but it is mine and one of few connections or rights.