I, too, have a semi-odd name. My parents named me after my grandmothers: Georgia Olivia. Why they couldn't put Olivia first is beyond me; apparently they liked my Dad's mum more than my Mom's mum. I tend to go by "gia" to avoid all the ridiculous (and generally very, very, very bad) state-name jokes.

Though I met and had a special kinship with a guy named Nevada. That was nifty.

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Georgia ("Gia") Manry
[url=http://georgiamanry.com]GeorgiaManry.com[/url]

My daughter is named Katama (Ka-TAY-ma) after a Wampanoag Legend that I grew up hearing as a child on Martha's Vineyard Island in Massachusetts.
I love this story so much that I recently published a childrens' book, THE LEGEND OF KATAMA, THE CREATION STORY OF DOLPHINS, A WAMPANOAG LEGEND OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD. It's a story about a young woman who by following her heart and her dreams makes difficult decisions that create a legacy of peace for her people. I worked with some of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal members during the book's creation, and the book is illustrated by a young Wampanoag woman.
Naming my daughter Katama was one of those decisions that I made when I was very young: "If I ever have a daughter, I will name her Katama!!" But I am very glad that I stuck with it. It's a beautiful name for which she gets lots of compliments. Now people have begun to ask her, "How does it feel to have a book named after you?!" Katama is also a beautiful part of Martha's Vineyard.

I just found out I'm very early in my first pregnancy, but I have been thinking of baby names for ages. If the baby is a boy, his name will be Alexei Conner. Alexei comes from my interest in the Romanovs and Conner is my tribute to Laci Peterson's baby. I am due the same day she was. If the baby is a girl, her name will be Arabella Lacie. Arabella is a character from Jude the Obscure, one of my favorite books, and Lacie is for Laci. My husband was always fine with Alexei, but Arabella took some reasoning :)

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Website: http://www.creativeinklings.org

My older daughter (15yrs) is Caitlin (after character that Sheena Easton played on Miami Vice as a guest star the year she was born). Her middle name is Jayne (after her paternal great grandmother). My son (13yrs) is Carl (after my great grandfather). His middle name is Richard (my father). My 7 week old daughter is Cymira (Sah-Meer-a) and although we changed the spelling she is named after a local singer that her father admired who passed away recently. Her name also means "reconciler" and it truly fits her in that her birth has brought my two older children closer to one another. Her middle name is Jade (precious gem).

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Life is what you make of it

I too named my son after a dream but not my own. I knew I was going to name him Skylar, but the middle name was up in the air. My mom called me and said that she had a dream that her grandson's name was Austin. I instantly decided that was it! Skylar Austin.

As for my second born, we named him Andrew Ashton, Drew for short. Drew comes from Drew Barrymore and Ashton from Ashton Kutcher!

My oldest daughter is named Jennifer Lynn. Then she was born (1970) there were
two popular songs with the name Jennifer in them - I think one was by Bob Dylan,
I can't remember. Anyway, I wanted to name her Guenivere or Gwendolyn (my
mother's middle name) because both are Welsh, half of my ancestry. Jennifer
and Lynn are a compromise on that particular situation.

My other, younger daughter is named Dana because my brother Dan died
while I was pregnant with her.

kathshannon@yahoo.ca

Funny - I am Jennifer Lynn too, born in 72, though I was always "Jenny" since before I was even born. When I went to college, there were Jennifers and Jenny's all over the place. Someone asked me if I was named "Jennifer" and when I was surprised he knew, said he was just going with the odds!

I don't have any kids myself, but I do have a story about my own name.

My parents named me Shasta after a character in a John Wayne movie. They couldn't decide on names and when they heard "Shasta", they liked it.

Of course, everyone always asks if I'm named after the popular soft drink. While annoying, at least it's a good point of reference. My last name was also obscure and unusual (Bosz, pronounced with a long O like Bose speakers) so a great many people just didn't know how to address me.

I read Traveldiva's reply with interest. My oldest son is Brendan Burns Healy. He goes by Burns from my great grandmother's side of the family also (as Traveldiva's was too). Her surname was Burns, related to Robert Burns through an illegitimate child, I have heard. Anyway, many of the men in my family have Burns as a middle name but no girls. I wanted to have a daughter and give her this middle name, but it was not to be. Good topic!

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ShelleyBueche.com

My wife and I had a terrible time trying to decide on a name for our first daughter. Believing our child was going to someone unique (Ha ha... new parents)... we, of course, tried to find a unique name for her. After quickly throwing out all of the "Shalandranequa/Sharalala" blather... we again looked at the traditional names... but added a twist. Being somewhat of a linguist... I remembered that "ah, jah, cah" meant "of God" in the old Hebrew. Thus... our daughter became "Jessicah"... meaning, "Happiness/Wealth of God". Adding the "H" to the end gave it a fresh tweak to make it stand out and tame enough not to get her beat up. :D

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Husband, Father, Teacher, Internationally published author

Hi there!

I have a 13 year old daughter named Molly Jolene.

She was named after one of the most wonderful women I have ever known, my Grandma Opal Molly Matoon. She was actually not even my blood grandma, but a great Aunt. But to me and my siblings, she has always been Grandma, as she was the lady who raised my mother. Even though she has passed on several years back, I know she is still with us all of the time. My daughter never got to know her great grandma, as she was just about 2 years old when she passed, but she knows her as a very strong woman and we talk about her often and look at pictures.

My daughter is also named after my Mother, Patricia Jolene, and my Sister, Leslie Jolene.

Best of luck to you with your book.

My wife is Italian; I'm German, and when we thought about kids' names, we always joked about how funny it would sound if we had a son with the first name Guido (after a favorite character in a Fellini film) with my very Teutonic last name, Woltman.
It wasn't long, however, until the name "Max" became am inevitability. We thought it had a nice sound to it, and we live in New Mexico, where Max is a common Hispanic name.
My parents never liked it, though, but didn't give a reason why. Maybe they just thought it sounded too old fashioned.
Anyway, eventually Max came along, and he was Max.
That's when my mother told me that her Grandfather's name was Max, though, for some reason, they always referred to him as "Marcel"- really odd, because he had a virtually unpronounceable Polish-sounding last name that was light years away from anything French. I never did find out what was so objectionable about "Max."
My son is now 24, and it wasn't but a few years after he was born that his name underwent a surge in popularity. Not only was it popping up on the TV soaps, but, for some time running, it was America's most popular name for dogs. It may be still.
Max has always liked his name, though. Better than "Guido."
But my son has always liked his name. Better than "Guido," anyway.

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Robert Woltman

I have a couple funny stories about names in my family:

My name comes from the ancient germanic diminutive form of Mathilde - namely Maude. Being francophone didn't help me much in school, as it rhymes with toad and road and woad... and the english kids sure loved to have fun with it. :( The name sure has come to mean a lot to me none-the-less. I found out the history of it, its meaning and have come to appreciate it all the more.

Our daughter was named for a number of reasons - for the Saint/Goddess Brigit, as well as for my mother who passed away over 10 yrs ago.

That all being said, I used to write an advice column entitled The Common Courtesy Faery for an online ezine named Echoed Voices. At one point, I received a letter from a couple trying to decide on the name of their anticipated bundle of joy. They were hoping someone might give them some advice as to HOW to name their child. I provided some simple guidelines that can be a help for anyone. If anyone would like to view it, please let me know and I will gladly post the link.

Maude

My family is weird with names on both sides. My mom's name is Deoretha, basically because my Grandma can't spell. Grandma's name, BTW, is Willie. As far as I know, it's not short for anything. My dad's name is Claude Vestal. And I ended up with Alva as a middle name.
I'm hoping to have a daughter someday, and I will name her after my favorite word, but I'm afraid someone will steal my idea and she won't have a completely original name when she's born. :) I'm not sure why this is important to me, but it is. I guess I want to make sure that there is at least one documented reason that she's special, so she'll never doubt it.

I have two daughters. My oldest is named Megan Alicia. I went through the Baby Name book I was given by my doctor and picked out all of the names I liked in common first and middle names. Then I narrowed it down further by deciding which first name she might be able to use regardless of how she turned out-girly-girl or tomboy. Then I matched each of those with the middle names I thought would make good first names if she chose to go by her middle name. It came down to Megan (Meg) Alicia.
My youngest daughter's name is Gypsie Leigh. I wanted her to have my middle name and began thinking of names that would go well with Leigh. When the name Gypsie popped into my head I was in love! I worked great as we also have Hungarian Gypsy blood too.
Now my name, Bonnie Leigh, was given to me because I was to be the last child. My mother's name is Bonnie and my father's name was Leroy. Thereby I was named Bonnie Leigh. BTW: I am STILL the baby of the family.
:D

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