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Pad Patter 7.8.15: Origin of your Name

jenevang

jenevang

Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs
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What does your 1st name mean? Why did your parents name you that?

My first name is Jennifer and honestly, my mom just liked it because she hadn't heard it much when I was born. HA! The joke was totally on her when my Kindergarten class sported FIVE of us. And just take a peek around any forum and you will find at least 100 folks named Jen/Jenn/Jenny/Jennifer :giggle

In here defense, I have only heard of a very few people OLDER than me with the name Jennifer. So there is that. LOL.

My husband is named Brad. Just Brad. When he asked his parents about it expecting a significant glimpse into his personal history, the response he got was "It sounded good with Todd" (his older brother's name) :rofl

For this reason, we assured each of our children had names with meaning. (so when they ask, we won't look like loser parents, hehe)

So, what about you? Why do you have the name that you have?
 
I am named after my mom's BFF at the time (at least my middle name is). If I were a boy, I'd have been Christopher James I think. Maybe Christopher Mathew. Whatever. I was Kristina spelled with a K to be different, LaRee after her friend.... and I was born at 8:53am, so I've had a rhyme my whole life: Kristina LaRee born at 8:53....

Husband is James Scott, because they couldn't come up with anything else. Scott is after his dad, so we continued that for our son.

My daughter is Kaydence because I always wanted that name, and Olivia because that was Dad's say in the matter. And if Rory had been a girl, he'd still be Rori, but different spelling. Named after the lone centurian in Dr Who, and because it was gender neutral. (We didn't find out the gender until a few weeks before.... sort of.)
 
another Jennifer ... totally named after the movie Love Story. and in my elementary school grade there were 8 of us! hated it!

ironically, i picked Emma for my daughter bc i thought it was a classic, old-school english name. right after my emma was born, Friends (TV show) named the new baby Emma. and there were a ton of Emma's. :(
 
My mum hated names that could be shortened, so decided on Vivi , and no one did , until Tony - he has called me Viv since day one LOL
 
My name is a combination between my mom's name: Alida and my aunt's name Liz. My aunt died when my mom was little. So that is how I ended up with Alidalis. I am the only one without a middle name in my house.
 
My name is Karen. It means pure. :rofl

I have no idea why they picked it. I should probably ask. My middle name is Jean after my Aunt who also has the same middle name.
 
My name just came to my dad while he was playing softball. My mom was in the stands with me (newborn and still unnamed). My middle name is my mom's first name - Virginia. My daughters are named after family members/ancestors.
 
Another Jennifer here...ya know...because I was born in 1979...wasn't that every baby girl's name that year?? :thumbsdowns
 
my mom loved the name Katheryne but it clashed quite badly with my last name and my dad wanted Maria which my mother didn't like. They went through the family tree so to speak and found a Johannah, mom didn't want the 'h's in because it seemed too old fashioned so I became Joanna. However, the hospital mistook my mom's last 'a' as an 'e' and my birth certificate says 'Joanne' so I became 'Joanne'. My granny's letters were always addressed to me as Joanna and my baptismal certificate says 'Joanna'. Mom also loved the name Elizabeth but doesn't like the shortened version of Liz so it's my middle name.

My son's name is Braeden, not common (or so I thought) when he was born. I knew I wanted an Old English/Gaelic name and that is the one I picked. English meaning is broad valley and Gealic/Celtic meaning is of salmon and salmon represented wisdom. His middle names are James (after his dad) and Adrian (after my dad, who has two family names but Adrian is his so I picked that one) I really liked the name Rowan but there was no way my then husband was going for that one.

If he had been a girl it would have been Ainsley Schuyler Elizabeth or Bronwyn Elizabeth Sarah. My former MIL asked me flat out why I liked 'weird' names :( She wasn't a fan of Braeden either, kept trying to get me to call him Brandon instead.
 
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Names are fun!

I'm Jennifer.... lol.... the most popular name in the 70's it seems! I was either going to be a Jennifer or a Jessica. I was told that my parents liked it... and it was a continuation of my Dad's family. I am much closer in age to some of his sisters and brothers than he is since there are 8 of them.... ALL eight of their names start with J - Jeanne, Jan, Joe, Jeff, Jim, Jon, Julie and Jane... then add me, Jenn. It was quite funny growing up with all my aunts and uncles. In high school, many teachers thought I was just the baby sister, lol!

Our family uses middle names to keep track of our family - this goes back many generations - over 9 of them! We always have at least one middle name - it is always our mother's maiden name. I've also done this with my boys, too! Like... my name is Jennifer Ann Dillon, Dillon is my mother's maiden name. It gives a little history to our names.

Another odd thing we did... our firstborn was named after my Grandfather, Shayne. When I was pregnant with boy #2... we were having a tough time agreeing on names... We both liked one a lot - BUT it was my Grandfather's brother's name.... we checked with my grandmother and family just so we wouldn't ruffle feathers. So... my grandfather and his brother were Shayne and Colin... and now my boys are Shayne and Colin. Different middle names.... but it's super eerie how much they act like their predecessors. Like, way eerie.

Ok.. I'll shush now. :)
 
My mom named me Amanda because she liked the meaning, "worthy of great love." I have always liked my name and despite being popular, I really don't (in real life) know any other Amandas
 
When my mom was young her Dad taught private violin lessons, and one of his students was named Lynnette. She always liked the name since hearing it then, and her best friend in college was named Lynn, so I'm sort of named after her as well. I have no clue what the actual meaning of my name is! My own kids all have first names we just picked because we liked them, but their middle names are all family names.
 
Both my first and middle names are Biblical names but I don't know if their meaning or origin actually has anything to do with the roots of my naming. The story my father always told me was that he and my mom created a list of names and "assigned" one to each day of the week and I was to receive whatever name was assigned to that day. He and mom remember this story differently so I don't know if it is the thing of family legend or if I really ended up with the name Sara because I was born on a Wednesday. Ha!

DG and I were much more deliberate with the naming of our girls. :)
 
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I was supposed to be Natalie Jean. As it got closer to birthing day, my dad suggested the name Julie Ann. My mom liked it, so voila, I was born Julie Ann. Turns out, my dad had an old girlfriend named Julie Ann.

And yes, my parents are divorced.
 
mrs2a50 said:
I was supposed to be Natalie Jean. As it got closer to birthing day, my dad suggested the name Julie Ann. My mom liked it, so voila, I was born Julie Ann. Turns out, my dad had an old girlfriend named Julie Ann.

And yes, my parents are divorced.
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Oh dear!
 
scarletsierra said:
Both my first and middle names are Biblical names but I don't know if their meaning or origin actually has anything to do with the roots of my naming. The story my father always told me was that he and my mom created a list of names and "assigned" one to each day of the week and I was to receive whatever name was assigned to that day. He and mom remember this story differently so I don't know if it is the thing of family legend or if I really ended up with the name Sara because I was born on a Wednesday. Ha!

DG and I were much more deliberate with the naming of our girls. :)
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And here I thought I had heard it all! A different name for each day of the week. Such a good story!
 
My name means load-bearing vehicle, so I'm glad the meaning has nothing to do with why they chose it. :P
My husband's name is Thomas, and his parents picked it just because they liked it, but it turns out to mean "twin" and he is a twin.
 
I was supposed to be named after Lara from Dr. Zhivago. The legend is that the nurse got it wrong on my chart and so it became Laura. LOL My middle name is family name that all of the women on my dad's side of the family have.
 
I was named after my great grandmother on my mothers side (Carolyn Louise). It was eerie visiting her grave as a young girl and seeing my name. She was a wonderful generous woman and I feel lucky. When my grandfather died (her son), I was given the set of vases that my great grandmother received from her mother on her wedding day in 1897. I like the contact with this member of the family even though she died before I was born.
 
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