Why do I have this name?

[toni*]

if i was a boy i was going to be called John George or George John in fact all of my sisters were too (i am one of 6 girls) my nan wanted us to be called Phillip if we were boys after Prince Phillip!

[Jill on the A272]

I'm Jill  because my dad told me he wanted me to have a short name because our surname has a lot of letters and it would be tedious filling in forms! Didn't get a middle name either which annoyed me when I was younger. Mum wanted me to be Claire but dad scotched that as he knew an unpleasant old lady of that name.

My brothers got longer names (Philip and Andrew). All three of our names are unique in our family tree.

[Icicle]

This is an interesting thread

Myself, my Mum and my Granny were christened Marie-Therese, Marie-Helene and Marie-Louise (complete with hyphens  ) and yet none of us are called by anything remotely resembling our names.

One of my sons is James. This was before I started researching and discovered that we have added to a long long line of James' on both sides of the family.

[angelfish58]

My mum & dad couldn't decide,dad chose the name Barbara and mum wanted Christine so they decided that if I was born with blonde hair I would be Christine and if a brunette I would be Barbara. My hair was white blonde but dad registered me........... 

[nestagj]

I am Nesta Gwynne - don't know where they got the Nesta - its the welsh version of Agnes but even though the family is welsh they tended used to use anglicised names.........do you know that's not right have just started thinking about my cousin's who are about my age and they are mostly welsh names - well never actually realised that before.  Mum was Gwyneth and I think I got the Gwynne from there.

My father in law was given as a middle name his mother's maiden name and he has always used it as well as his surname; it was also given to all the children - both my sister's in law have hyphenated it and use it as their surname but DH doesn't and I definitely don't - not because of snobbery - just too much to sign.   We carried on and gave it to our son who also hyphenates it - our surname is Jones and as soon as he worked out that if he called himself Cooper-Jones he was closer to the top of the register he began to use it  !!! His given names are Owen Christopher .......Owen as a family name after my Dad but the first Owen Jones was born in 1798 ! I didn't realise it went that far back before I started researching but knew that there was at least one in each generation back to 1850!  When my son was about 12 he announced that he did not wish to be called Christopher any more - he was Chris !! his grandparents still call him Christopher but mostly he's Chris - answers to both ! When his son was born I received an Email asking for family names and I listed them all - had a couple of bad hours when I realised that I didn't really want a grandson called Kemuel !!! but they used Thomas as a middle name for him - again a very old family first name.  His first name is scots but there is a welsh version and they are both pronounced the same but spelt differently. 

Up to my generation on both sides the traditional family names were used !  My grandmother was Lizzie and I had a smile when I realised that my aunt who was always very genteel wasn't registered as Mary Elizabeth as she had always said but Mary Lizzie !
Nesta

[busybod]

I have a friend who was christened Gillian. She says this was chosen by her elder brother.  Apparently he already had a Jack (Jacqueline) so decided he would like a Jill to complete the set!!!


Busybod

[billramp]

My step-daughter is named Dawn.......she was born at Dawn...nice and simple

[genjen]

My step-daughter is named Dawn.......she was born at Dawn...nice and simple

If I had applied that logic, my daughters would have been called Middle-of-the-Night and Lunchtime.

[Annie65115]

My real name is a Greek mouthful, commonly misspelt and mispronounced. I have never liked it. I also have no idea whatsoever why parents chose it (no precedent in the family and no-one's Greek either!) and they've never called me by the full version!

So for my daughter I wanted a name that was easy to spell and pronounce, and at the same time not too run of the mill yet not too esoteric. I would have like to call her Harriet (a family name that would have made my dad v happy ) but my partner was having none of that. So she's Hannah - I still like her name and she does too.

Strangely, virtually no-one in my entire family has ever been known by their given name but only one changed their name by deedpoll, when the man who would have been Norman changed to Tim!