What were you almost named?

[KittyTwoShoes]

Just thinking about how on earth anyone ever decides on a name for their child and wondered if anyone knows their parents' shortlists? I'm interested to see how they differ from the shortlists on here today.

I'm Katherine, but was almost Anastasia... DP was almost Morris(!).

So what were you nearly called?

My friend was to be called Jacqueline, her dad went to register the birth and then couldn't recall how to spell it and came home and told my friend's mum that she was registered as Susan.

Django or Sunni if I was a boy.

Avril. Boak...Was also going to be zoe or Chloe, both of which I like...

Strongest contender was ...Bathsheba

followed by Samantha

I am forever grateful to my brother who then (age 9) firmly put his foot down in the hospital and said no to both!

(Oh and as I was born on an armistice Sunday the Midwife suggested Remeberance too!)

My mum wanted my actual name the whole way through her pregnancy but my Dad and sister both wanted me to be a boy and they wanted to call me Daniel. I actually quite like the name Daniel!

Morag

I was Katherine for two weeks, but mum had a road to Damascus and changed it. Which is a shame because I really love the name Kate, far more than my own.

Not for me, I hasten to add, but for a boy!

Michaela, as I was born on St Michaelmas Day.

When I was in my 20s I worked at a small company and there was a woman there with the same birthday as me. She was Mic.

Hedwig takes the though!

Congrats Hester

I kid you not.....Mitzi for a girl, WTF!?
for a boy Timothy.

DH of one friend registered dd2's name all on his own! - they'd decided on name Poppy (dd1 called Daisy) - he registered her as Martha. My friend NOT PLEASED

Elizabeth or Julia.

Katherine was the other option considered, or Leon if I had been a boy.

Prefer both to my real name.

My brother was supposed to be Douglas. Mother and Father had agreed this.

In those days the registrar came round the hospital.

Mum says she tried to say "Douglas" but Alastair came out instead

Margaret or Rachel. As a teenager I thought I'd had a lucky escape but now think Margaret would be quite cool compared to the name they gave me which was totally standard Seventies five-of-them-in-every-class.

Rebecca.

My mum only changed her mind when my aunt sad 'Oh, but what if she ends up with a bit of a nose? She'll get called Beaky Becca...'

I could've been a Chantelle or a Siobhan! I'm a Charlotte!! Thanks dad!

DH's father wanted to call him Tostig

I would have been Matthew had I been a boy. My mother wanted to call me something Irish (not sure she had a shortlist but she's been pressurising me to use Aoife for a girl for ages) but my father wasn't keen.

Richard (if I was a boy, obv.)

Angharad!

My brother was nearly called Karol

Ruby. But i have a rubbish name instead