What/Who were you named after?

The year I was born a Woloworth heiress named Babs Hutton was in the news. My mother liked the name Babs so named me Barbara, I guess I didn;t seem like a Babs so she never called me that. Neither did anyone else. I just use it online for fun.
 

My mother took French in high school and was assigned a French pen pal. They kept in touch long after high school, but when the Germans invaded France during WWII, they lost contact.

It happened that my dad's family were French Canadians with a very French surname. Combined with the first name of the French pen pal, et voilà! my very French name.

What a shame that the internet happened so long after the war...my mother and her pen pal could probably have found one another again. I never knew the surname of the pen pal or I'd have been looking all these years.
 

When I was born, my dad was heavily into Westerns -- movies & TV shows. He was into them all, including books and novels. I was named after one of the main characters in one of those Westerns.

When I was 6 or 7, I can remember my dad owning and wearing a Stetson, in the UK! My brother was born around that time. My dad wanted to name my brother, John, with Wayne as the middle name.

My mother simply said, “No!”. So that was the end of that -- or at least up to a point. In the end my brother was named after an ancient Greek mythical hero. Actually, its not as bizarre as you might think.

As for me, as I got older, I too developed an interest in Westerns, through my dad. I can remember watching The High Chaparral as a child with my dad, and thinking how lucky am I? I thought, as a child might, I could have been named, Buck, Billy Blue, Billy Bo Peep, Bo Diddley, or Diddly Squat or something!
 
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On my paternal side, the first born son was named after the Father or granddfather.. and the first born female named after the mother and or grnadmother..

My eldest brother from my father's first marriage is also called after my father.. and his son my nephew, also the same name ..so every frst born male on my paternal side for generations has the same first name


My grandparents had named all their children after someone else in the family... and my mother was having none of that , so she named all of us girls with names no-one else had in the family.. but agreed to have our middle names from the family list..

..so me as the first born girl.. was given my maternal and paternal grandmothers' name.. as my Middle name (they both co-incidentally had the same first name ) ..my sisters were given family surnames as their middle names... ..but a first name completely unconnected to anyone else in the family ( not Holly or Dolly)

When it came to my brother a year younger than me.. my mother obviously agreed to the male lineage.. and she gave him the first name of my great grandfather, and my father's eldest brother... and 2 more first names of male relatives..as his middle names
 
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horseless carriage said:
You have to start with our family name: "Taylor." Back in the 1940's there was a Hollywood star named Spangler Arlington Brugh.
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He was a real heartthrob and mother had a crush on him. His wife was the actress, Barbara Stanwyck.
When my mother was delivered of her new baby, a boy, she and Dad were thrilled. Dad wanted to name him Herbert after his own father, who had been a victim of the London bombing in world war two.
Mother had other ideas, she suggested Robin. "Robin!" Dad said, "he will be teased mercilessly with that name." At the time there was a lady politician with the name Robyn, Dad probably had her in mind.
Seeing his crestfallen wife, Dad capitulated, suggesting a mutual hybrid. "Hybrid?" Queried mother. Dad said that their baby could have Rob, as in Robin and Bert as in Herbert. Therefore the baby was named Robert.
Poor Dad, if only he knew. Spangler Arlington Brugh has the stage name: Robert Taylor.
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Nice photo. My mother deeply admired Robert Taylor. Unfortunately he died of lung cancer at age 57.
 
Until my father came along and changed it up, all the relatives born after his grandparents emigrated to the US married other Irish people.
My dad messed this up by marrying a German woman.
My first and last names are Irish. My middle name does not exist because my dad believed that when women get married, their former surname could jolly well be their middle name.
 
My parents both went by their middle names instead of their first names as did most of their siblings. I guess that was a popular thing to do in their generation and even before because my grandparents on both sides did as well. My parents had seven of us kids and never carried on with the tradition until I came along just south of being the middle child.
My first name came from my grandfather and an uncle on my dad's side. I have no Idea where my middle name came from but this is what my parents had me use as my name. I didn't know until I was twelve when I got my birth certificate that this was the case. Seven kids and I am the only one that had this happen. I actually like my middle name better than my first anyway so it's all good in the end.
My late wife Annie was one of eight kids and was the only one in her family that was named this way too.
 
Another one here who is a "Junior", with my father's first and middle name. Some trivia... my father's first name sounds like an old Jewish man's name, but it was butchered after my Jewish ancestors left Germany and turned Baptist. My father went by his middle name, Douglas, when he was in school, then changed to his first name after I was born. I've always gone by Doug and when the teacher called me by my first name in roll call everyone would laugh. I wanted to hide under my desk.

The funny thing is, since I live in a city with so many Hispanics many don't know how to spell or pronounce "Doug". I'll either get "Dog" or "Dough" on my Starbucks cup. :ROFLMAO: Hubs name is Ralph, short for Rafael, and no one can spell his name either. When we order at a fast food restaurant I simply give my name as Andy. From a phonetic standpoint, very few can mess that one up.
 
seadoug said:
Another one here who is a "Junior", with my father's first and middle name. Some trivia... my father's first name sounds like an old Jewish man's name, but it was butchered after my Jewish ancestors left Germany and turned Baptist. My father went by his middle name, Douglas, when he was in school, then changed to his first name after I was born. I've always gone by Doug and when the teacher called me by my first name in roll call everyone would laugh. I wanted to hide under my desk.

The funny thing is, since I live in a city with so many Hispanics many don't know how to spell or pronounce "Doug". I'll either get "Dog" or "Dough" on my Starbucks cup. :ROFLMAO: Hubs name is Ralph, short for Rafael, and no one can spell his name either. When we order at a fast food restaurant I simply give my name as Andy. From a phonetic standpoint, very few can mess that one up.
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you should live in the UK ( only kidding wouldn't wish that on you these days).. but Doug and Ralph are popular names here...among our generation
 
Nobody. I almost ended up the 3rd, but my mother wasn’t having it. She picked a name that was popular in the 1950’s that nobody on either side of the family has.
 
I've got it all figured out now. @horseless carriage is my all time, favorite, most handsome actor:
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And @Naturally is George W. Bush.
 
My father, brothers, my son and I all have the same middle name. It was more of a man's name at the time, but has gradually become a girl's name, as they are taking all the names these days. ;)

My first name was so rare when I was growing up that I was the only one in my school. These days it's fairly common. I expect it became more well known after my ship sank.
 
Judycat said:
I was named after Judith from an apocryphal book in the Bible. My mother told me the story as a child that ended with the woman chopping off the head of the General of the Assyrian army. Nice. I have yet to do something like that. 🙄
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At least she didn't name you Jael who who killed her relative, the Canaanite general, by hammering a tent peg through his temple after he had kindly taken her in.
 

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