Why do I have this name?

[Rena]

I have something similar to Bodger's "S.J." names in that my maternal grandmother Edith Sophia chose to give all her daughters names starting with "E": Ena, Eva, Elsie, Edith (Edie).  I haven't figured out whether she was acknowledging her step mother "Elizabeth" (her real mother Lucy died when she was young) or just thought it was a romantic notion to use the "E" in her own name.

There were plenty of males in my paternal grandparents family but only 3 granddaughters.  Their oldest son wanted to name his daughter after his mother but his wife refused to saddle a "modern" child with the name Agnes but did agree to use the name Lilias in remembrance of her husband's sister who died aged 7 - this was also a family name carried down through generations.   My mother also demurred at giving me the name Agnes and neither of my 2 brothers have our grandfathers names.  She always told me she agreed to name me Rena because she liked it and it couldn't be shortened, but since I've researched the family I realise my father had managed to connect all of his children to his siblings by giving us names of his nephews and a niece who I didn't know existed.

I have found & contacted my older cousin Rena and all she knew was that her mother (my father's oldest sibling unknown to me until I was 16)  liked the name.  My grandparents came down to England to raise their younger children and left their 2 oldest teenage daughters in Scotland living with relatives.  All became clear when I found the Scottish census which showed that my father's sisters had a playmate living a few doors away called Rina.  Her mother was Italian and as I know there was a ship called Reina Del Mar (Queen of the Sea) - I'm wondering if the original friend Rena was conceived on a ship of that name when her father brought his new wife back to England 

[bodger]

Re the S. J. s, there was one alteration, Selana Jo, should have been Selina, but with the surname Bacon we defered and invented Selana, but everyone knows her has Jo /ey

[Flora1966]

I have no idea why I was called Julie....I never use my name and am known as Jules....

I called my daughter Melody Grace...Melody sounded nice and Grace after my nan Edith Grace...

[Ermintrude46]

I was born in Paris so my parents chose a name from the acceptable list of saint's names for my first name, as was expected of French families at the time.  My second name was supposed to be Mary, at my mother's insistance, but my father registered me at the British Embassy with a middle name of Dorothy, the same as my mother, much to her annoyance (and mine for the first 20-odd years of my life).  Then I found that Dorothy was a name that went back nine generations on my mother's maternal side, so I proudly gave it to my eldest daughter as a middle name too.  My younger sister got the Mary instead.
Ermy

[suey]

I was supposed to be  Jennifer, however when I was born one of the nurses (what is it with nurses ) said to mum "she's a real little 'Black eyed Suzie!' -and I became Susan.  I must say  prefer Susan to Jennifer.

My two daughters both have names that run through the families but we didn't know this until I started on the family history 10 years ago, spooky! They also both have their respective grandmothers christian names as second names.

Oddly enough we never got round to choosing boys names, goodness knows what we'd have done if we'd had two boys - easy option of the grandpa's probably... Frederick and George.

[Rena]

My two daughters both have names that run through the families but we didn't know this until I started on the family history 10 years ago, spooky! They also both have their respective grandmothers christian names as second names.

We've got the same spooky coincidence in our family.  The grandfather of my mother and her sister was a Hannoverian b1854 and nobody knew anything about him except he was brought to the UK when he was very young by a relative of another boy.  When I eventually found his baptism record my aunt couldn't believe what I was telling her - that without knowing it in 1946 she'd chosen the same name for her daughter as that of her grandfather's German mother b1824, which was "Christine".

[KarenM]

I worked with a lady named Rena, she was from Scotland, but her full name was Catherine.  I figured your name Rena was just a short form of that 

I like my name, it was chosen after 2 of my mum's best friends.  One Karen who was killed in a car crash 2 weeks before her wedding day.  My mum was supposed to go but was busy cleaning out my grandma's stove.   The 2nd Karen, her son (8 years old at the time) died 3 days before I was born.  He was playing outside and the ball rolled under the stairs, he tried to get it and got his head stuck between the stairs and died.  To this day I have a huge fear of open stairs.

Karen

[Icicle]

Here is another drunk father story

A friend of mine is one of 15 children. When his youngest sister was about to arrive his Dad drove his Mum to the hospital and then went to the pub.

The delivery took longer than expected and he was well oiled by the time he got the call from the hospital.

The nurse showed him his new daughter and asked what he was calling her (in Ireland births are registered in the hospital). 'Kathleen, after my Mother' he said and went to see his wife. When he told her she was furious. Their eldest daughter was called Kathleen 

[toni*]

the registrar used to come around the hospital here in England too, i don't know if it was daily or weekly i know it doesnt happen now!