(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

I'm always curious about this, so I thought I'd ask you guys, since it's Mother's Day -- do you know what your parents would have named you if you would have born as the opposite sex?

I was going to be Christopher, which I like a heck of a lot more than Jennifer. And I always say that when my mom was going to have my brother, I was dying for a baby sister until I found out my mom wanted to name him April. I couldn't change my mind fast enough. ;) (I mean, I already didn't like the name, but the kid was due to be born in April, for crying out loud.)

Comments

[gem225.livejournal.com]

I would have been Peter Andrew.

P.S. VM episodes being burned for you and will fly to you as soon as I have the last one of Season 1, OK?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

YAY! *flails* Thankyouthankyouthankyou! :)

[fmith.livejournal.com]

I was going to be José, or possibly Rafael.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

My father wanted two boys and two girls. Both of my parents were part of two boys and two girls. My father's little brother has the first names Alexander William. Anyhow, big brother Drummond was named after our father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etcetera back to 1746. Baby brother Liza and I enjoy the names Alexander and William. So, not a great deal of originality there.

Liza's first names are actually Alexander George. A friend of my mother's named her youngest daughter Georgina Alexandra. I should add that she's several years younger than Liza (and, last I saw, going through a Madonna-in-hoop-earrings phase). Oh, and mine are William Robert, which considering my father's family always name the first son of the first son after one great Scottish patriot seems slightly suggestive to me.

The point, though, is that we're all more or less named after family members. Between the three of us, 'Robert' is about the only name not used by a relative in my father's lifetime (there's also great-great-uncle George, the original owner of my silver cigarette case, and Bill the Bishop, who had the unusual distinction of having served in the Army, Navy and Air Force, and seen combat for all three, before becoming a priest. Oh, and Big Chief Billy, who happens to still be alive).

So I would probably have been named after a relative. My father's elder sister named her first daughter after their mother, so that wouldn't be an option. My mother really doesn't get on with her elder sister, so that probably wouldn't have been an option.

Instead, if would have been one of: Elizabeth (abbreviated to Liz or Betty), Lavender (don't ask), or Yvonne. I sincerely hope I wouldn't have been named after either of my father's sisters, Kirsty and Petronella. My grandmother is in many ways a remarkable woman, but naming daughters was not her strongpoint.

If I had been called Elizabeth, one of my younger cousins would probably have a different name.

Let's stick with Elizabeth. Possibly Elizabeth Yvonne.

[mice.livejournal.com]

Nope, sorry boy, Lizzy Lavender, all the way.

Incidentally, if you ever wanted to be a drag queen, I think we're half way there...

[phillyexpat.livejournal.com]

Matthew Sidney, as opposed to Miriam Sindee. Jews name their children after relatives who have passed away.

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

I would have been named after my father, who was named after his father before him, who was named after his father before him. They were all named "Clarence," and as far as I know all of them went by nicknames.

It would have been a cruel thing to do, so I suppose my name now is better, even if it is used only by strippers and 'hos.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

You're a Kimberly?

No, wait... Amber, right?

[valerie]

I don't know about me, but my little sister Alana would've been Connor James McKeon Rogers (yep, two middle names) :)

[karenbear.livejournal.com]

I would have been Scott - It's my dad's middle name. I think I prefer Karen. *nods*

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

That didn't stop them? My dad's middle name is Scott--and so is mine.

Of course, so is Grandma's. It's some female relative's maiden name and a whole slew of children get it as their middle name. My first child is getting it, too.

[andraste]

Andrew. They later used it as my brother's middle name - it would have been his first name, only it's too similar to what I actually ended up with.

[manynames.livejournal.com]

My mum always knew I would be a girl and didn't have a name other than Hazel lined up, but my little sister would have been David.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

I was down to be Zachary if a boy, or Heather if a girl. And then I was born and there was a huge argument, and I ended up as A**. Nothing like knowing that the name you are to be saddled with for life was merely the first thing that came to your mother's mind when your father said, "What about Emily?"

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

I would have been Gregory. Which I guess they liked alot since that's what they named my brother three years later.

[dolimir-k.livejournal.com]

I believe I would have been Kevin and my sister would have been Steven.

Kevin *shudders*

[conuly]

Jennifer? What kind of crazy name is Jennifer?

My sister is a Jennifer. She almost got Celeste instead, which I think might have been a better deal, considering.

I'm named after my grandfather, so who knows, I might've been simply Constantine instead of Constance. Though maybe not, he hated growing up with that name.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I hate Jennifer. I mean, okay, it goes with my last name by now, but it was the most popular name for girls born in 1977, and it showed. Not only was a full ten percent of my graduating class in high school named some version of Jennifer (sixty kids - six girls named Jennifer), but we were all in the last half of the alphabet last-name-wise, which meant we spent most of our high school years lumped into the same two rows in every class. You try to figure out if you're being called on when the teacher looks in your direction, calls your name, and six girls answer. Bah.

[tronella.livejournal.com]

I'd have been Stephen (whereas actually, I am Katy).
Also, if my dad's younger sister Stephanie had been a boy, she'd have been Stephen. If my mum and her younger sister (Anita and Caroline) had been boys, they'd have been Stephens. If my younger sister Lisa had been a boy, she'd have been Stephen.
However, my younger brother is called Matthew.

Oh dear

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I would have been Alistair Ian (which is my younger brother's name). But my second brother, had he been a girl, would have been Hillary Roslyn. Luckily, he's James Edward, aka Jimmy Ted.

[ladynaberrie.livejournal.com]

I was supposed to be Sean. My sister was supposed to be Sean. My parents, believing the name to cause her to have girls (which was fine) decided when she was pregant a third time, to name the baby Michael if it were a boy and not Sean. That time, boy.

[maryavatar.livejournal.com]

I would have been called Sandy (short for Alexander) if I was a boy. Instead I got Mary-Jane. Oh, so much better. O.o

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

I would have been David Lawrence XXX III. ::shudder::

After they found out I was a girl, I was supposed to be Susan. Then, my parents started watching The Bionic Woman ... and Jaime I became. :)

[dragonsinger.livejournal.com]

You were named after the Bionic Woman? Neat!

[silentfire.livejournal.com]

giovanni. *shudder* makes me happy i'm a girl.

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

I was going to be Matthew Warren, I believe. I even know what name my mother REALLY wanted for me as a girl, but my father enlisted aid in talking her out of it.
Galadriel Eden
Not kidding, even remotely. Granted, now I think it's a cool name, but can you imagine how often as a child I'd have been thrown in lockers for it?!

[freakygeekgirl.livejournal.com]

Brandon Carl, which she really must have liked because I'm a Brandy.

[ginnytonnick.livejournal.com]

Paul

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Me, too, I would have been Paul. And my brother (who is not Paul) would have been Victoria Lynn if he was a girl.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

You know, waiting like that is not such a bad idea. That way parents get just a little bit of an idea of the child's personality and such before saddling them with a lifelong name (plus, no chance of mom choosing something wild and wacky while she's very likely either drugged or completely exhausted).

[mayhap]

I was going to be a Brian, a name which my mother now apparently hates, so it is perhaps just as well that I was a girl. Instead, I ended up being named Megan, after a little girl that she used to babysit when she was younger. She apparently did not realize that everyone else and their sister was naming their infants Megan at the exact same time. *sighs*

My little brother was going to be Elizabeth. He was instead named James for all of sixteen days, and then my mother had an existential crisis and decided that this infant was just not a James and had him renamed Daniel.

[maryavatar.livejournal.com]

It could have been worse: I went to school with a girl called June who was born in March. She had to explain why to everyone she met.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

That's a rare and special kind of cruelty. I must remember that.