Names

I was the third child born in my family--the third daughter. My first sister, Olive Jean, didn't live but a few days. I'm not sure where "Olive" came from, but Jean was the name of my mother's best friend from childhood. When my next sister was born, my mother still wanted to use "Jean," but combined it with Mary and came up with Marigene. Sis has had to contend with people mispelling her name all her life. My parents planned to name a son after my dad, so he would be Theodore Jr. Girl names were harder for them. My mother, pregnant with me, was sitting in the kitchen one day, all by herself, sipping a cup of tea. The radio was on and a song was playing "My Yvonne, sweetest one...me oh my oh" Then something, something.."down on the bayou." I guess I am lucky I wasn't named Crawfish pie (also mentioned in the song) or "billy gumbo." But that is how I got MY name! My mother wanted to name me after herself: Evalyn, but thought that would be too conceited. Her mother was Evalena. She wanted a name with the "e" sound and Yvonne was as close as she could come. My middle name is the same as hers, though: Frances. I've never like it. Too many old movies on tv about Francis the Talking Mule when I was a child. I used to tell kids in school, when they asked what the initial F. stood for in my name, that it was Fred. The only one I ever told the truth to was a boy named Karl. He confessed the his middle name was Rudolph and swore me to secrecy. I never told anyone (until now!) but since being named after a red-nosed reindeer seemed much worse to me that being named after a talking mule, I told him my middle name. As far as I know, he kept my secret too!

When we were expecting our first child, Tom wanted to name him after his dad, James. I was fine with that, but added the middle name of Theodore after my father. A version of a tradition by ancestors who named the firstborn son after the father's father, the 2nd born son after the mother's father... Jim was "Jimmy" until he was five years old. That's when my father-inlaw died. Jimmy came to us and said, "I want to be called Jim now. The world needs a Jim _______." (note: I'm not inserting our last name here, for security reasons) I thought that was a very sweet and very thoughtful remark, especially from a five year old! He has been Jim ever since.

Ahh, then pregnant with Liz...alone in a car one day with my inlaws. Dad said to me that since we'd named our son after him, they were hoping we'd name a daughter Marianne. My mother-inlaw's name was Marian and, parents of three sons, the daughter they never had was always going to be Marianne. I didn't want to hurt their feelings, but with the song from Gilligan's Island playing in my head, "...the professor and Maryann, here on Gilligan's Isle!," I didn't want to name my daughter, if I had one, Marianne! I told them of the tradition of "e" names in my family: Evalena...Evalyn..Yvonne...and how we wanted to name our daughter Elizabeth. Dead silence in the car all the way back to my house. I knew they were disappointed. I felt pressured, but stood firm. My child, Tom and I got to name her and that was that. My grandmother, who was confined to a wheelchair after having a stroke when I was in college, wanted us to name a daughter after her. I had already told her we were planning on Elizabeth Christine. Christine being my grandmother's first name. She wanted it all, though, "Christine Johanna." Again, more pressure! Although that wouldn't have been bad, but Elizabeth was actually the only name Tom and I could totally agree on. He liked the name Sondra. I didn't. When we brought our baby girl home, her big brother was so thrilled to have a sister! Jim was only 2 years and 8 months old, so Elizabeth was a big mouthful for him. We gave him the choice: Liz, Lizzy, Libby, Beth, Betsy. He chose Betsy and that's what we called Liz for several years, until she decided she wanted to go by Elizabeth. Liz, as her nickname, didn't show up until later.

Then there was Jeff. Jeffrey was from Grandpa Jim's middle name: Jefferson. Thomas for Jeff's middle name was Tom's name, of course. But Jefferson Thomas? Nooo thank you! Tom didn't want a Thomas Jr. He dislikes his middle name and never liked being called Tommy, although his great-uncle Mert never caught on to that. Or..maybe he did! Mert was quite a tease. Jeff was mostly Jeff, except for a brief period in grade school when he decided he wanted to be called Jeffrey. He was never Jeffy, at least not from his parents--although his older siblings might have teased him with that now and again.

Cait, who came to us at age 5, under another name--decided when we adopted her (at age 7), that she didn't want anything "they" had given her. This included her name. She and Liz sat down with a baby book and picked out a name. At first Cait wanted to be called Elizabeth, which was sweet--she loved her big sis! But I explained it would be too confusing to have TWO Elizabeths in the house. She chose Caitlin Johanna.

So..where did YOU get your name?