Were You Named After Someone?

It is (or was) common to give the first child the mother's maiden name as their middle name. This applied to both male and female children - hence my sister's middle name is Allan.
 

When I was a kid my mother told me I was named after the Biblical Judith who seduced an Assyrian General, got him blackout drunk, then chopped off his head with his own sword while he slept. People wonder why I am so weird? There is one example.
 
My first name was after my father‘s, and my middle name was supposedly after an uncle of my mother who lived in England that I never met. I did inherit an ornate gold pocket watch from that gentleman. I won’t sell it as prospective buyers want to melt it down for it’s gold content, which seems barbaric as the last piece of my never-seen uncle existent. So it sits in a drawer until I die, at which point it’s survival will be in serious doubt.

Parents these days often name their kids after any darn thing that enters their mind, even vehicles. I’ve encountered a “Mercedes,” and even a “Ryder,” whose mother was taken by the name of a rental truck company…
 
Mercedes is a "legitimate" female name, i.e. Mercedes McCambridge, and she won an Academy Award in 1949. So, this has been a name that's been around a bit.

As for Ryder, it has recently become popular for a boy because of the cartoons with characters of this name for the last decade.
 


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