I guess I tried to do what all Dads do...name their male children after something wildly masculine.

I settled for Chase on the first son because I was eager to reach a settlement with Mom. We'd gone 'round and 'round on names and were no closer to a conclusion, but I thought the name seemed to fit a man who might one day run a corporation, belong to an exclusive country club, etc. But I backed it up with Alexander, after Alexander the Great.

The second son was more my decision. After I had suggested "Zeus" and "Apollo" and we had a rather amusing discussion over "MacGyver," I started talking about a passion of mine - Arthurian legends.

I had been reading the story of Tristan and Isolde and noted how brave and loyal Tristan was. It also occurred to me that the second child wasn't going to have the same new car smell that the firstborn would, so I wanted to do something unique for him when he came into the world. Thus, we named him Tristan.

Because there are so many nicknames for my name, Barbara, and I dislike almost all of them, I gave both of my children four-letter names. I thought there would be no way to create a nickname for Kurt, but his wife calls him Kurtie. I don't think I've ever heard anyone use a nickname for Gail, however. My son's father wanted him to be a junior, which I didn't like, so we compromised and gave him his father's name, Edwin, as a middle name.

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www.musebooks.com

About nine years ago, my sister and I were living in L.A., in an apartment we believed was haunted by ghosts. Since we've both had a lot of firsthand experience with ghosts, we decided to try contacting them to find out what they wanted and why they were there. A friend of ours, Josh, was there visiting, so we all sat down one night to work the Ouija board, just for fun.

Things were going alone fine when all of a sudden whoosh -- Josh's energy and mine dropped way down; we were nearly falling asleep. Josh said he felt it was the spirit of a small child. The planchette was moving VERY SLOWLY, moving onto the picture of the sun, over and over. Finally I asked, "Are you someone's son?" The answer was Yes. I then asked "Whose?" The pointer went to the "B" and then the "D." That's when I lost it--I broke down and cried.

Both my sister and Josh were staring at me, wondering what was going on. When I could finally talk, I told them something neither of them knew: years before, I'd been pregnant and lost a baby during college. At the time I was engaged to (and subsequently married) the baby's father--Brian David.

Once I had regained my composure I asked the spirit what its name was. The pointer spelled out "Justin Michael." I asked if he had been my son, and he said "Yes--and I will be again." Then he said, "Love you Mommy"...and was gone.

About two years later I remarried, and in late 1997 I gave birth to a beautiful boy, Justin Michael.

Here's a new one, not used by me, but by my mom.

She was a first grade teacher back in the days when kids entered school not knowing how to write their names. She named me Jill because it was easy to print -- all straight letters with just that one little curve at the beginining.

As for me, I have four kids, but only one worth this discussion. I am of Swedish heritage, and wanted a Scandanavian name for my second son. He is Anders (the derivative of Andrew) and his middle name is Thomson. My husband is Thom, and in the old country, our son's last name would have been Thomson. It was our way of paying respect to our ancestors.

My 14 year old daughter's name is Amy.

Amy is similar to, related to the French word amie. It means beloved one. Becoming a dad was such a big deal to me, and I had a heart full of love for my only child that I named her Amy. Her middle name is Sue, which is her mother's middle name and maternal grandmother's first name.

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Hope is on the way!

When I went to high school, one of the prettiest, classiest, wealthiest, slimmest girls was named Cynthia. I named ny daughter after her in the hopes that she would be prettier, slimmer & classier than me. We called her Cyndi when she was small, her friends now call her Cyn or Cyd.

In case she didn't like her first name (I hated mine) ... we gave her my middle name which is Lee. I have used it all my life & it's impossible to make a nasty nickname from the name Lee. I had 2 friends who hated their first names (one was Ophelia, the other Gertrude) & switched to middle names in their teens (Lee & Lynn) so I wanted to give my daughter that option.

I think names can shape a child's future as can nicknames ... a girl named Elizabeth, for instance, might have her personality shaped by the diminutive used ... Liz, Beth, Betsy.

My family is known for their odd ways of picking children's names. My brother was given an Irish name (to honour Dad's Irish heritage) and my dad's name - Kelly Lynn. My younger sister was named for Dad's French heritage and for my best friend at the time - Michele Joyce. My youngest sister was named Pamela Sue. I'm not sure where the Pamela came from, but Sue was the second choice of my brother. He was so disappointed that he didn't have a brother than he said "Oh, I don't care what you call her. Call her telephone pole if you want." He relented later and suggested "Suzy Q", so we got 'Sue'.

Unlike my siblings, though, I don't have a middle name, nor am I named after a family member or with a specific heritage in mind. I was named after Marjorie Main's tugboat in the movie "On the Waterfront". I am Cheryl-Ann.

My first child was given a similar odd reason for a name. Her father saw the name on a license plate and thought it was cool. She has my father's name for her middle name - Memere Lynn. It's pronounced like the word 'memory', by the way.

My second child had a bit more practical name - Petra, from John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids" (after a character therein) and Ernestine, for a dear friend whose daughter can't have children and who has twice saved me from court martial. *lol* And she's turned out to be just as stubborn as my friend is.

Peg

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Open mouth, insert foot; that's what good stories are made of.

One of my favorite books is The Yearling, mostly because that is how my mom decided on my name. She was convinced I would be a boy (WRONG) and had set her mind on the name Jody. When I surprised everyone, they vacillated between changing the spelling to Jodie or leaving it Jody. They decided to leave it. When I was younger, I often changed it on the sly at school, but now I like it because it is different.

Now I'm married and we have four boys. They all have Irish / Scottish names because I'm Irish and my husband is Scottish. We have done quite a bit of geneaology research and he is Bruce from Robert the Bruce and I am a Sheridan and have paperwork all the way back to 1017 in Ireland. So... our boys' names are Patrick Emmett, Michael Bruce, Ian Mclain, and Brendan Owen. If I had a girl, her name would have been Lillian Mae.

Names are fun to decide on. It is so interesting to watch the little ones' personalities come in line with their names. :o)

First of all, my name. I was named Jamie, from my dad, James, and my middle name, LeAnne, I am not sure where my mom got it from, but she thought it was cool to have a capital letter in the middle of the name.

My daughter, Kate, was named that because her daddy wanted to name her something she would always love, and we call her Katie. Her middle name is Meredith because I was watching The View, and I heard the name, and I liked how it sounded with her first name. My second daughter is named Madelyn Pearson. The name Madelyn jumped out at me from the baby name book after I had decided I couldn't find a name I loved. I chose to spell it with a y because I didn't want people to mispronounce it. Pearson is the maiden name of my grandmother, and I loved the way the names sounded together.

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It's a crayon.

Our adopted daughter, Eliana, is from Guatemala. My wife and I chose her name in the midst of our infertility ordeal, after meeting another Eliana from Guatemala during a trip to the airport. Before the trip, we were torn about what adoption path to follow; after the trip, we knew there was only one path.

First came our son, Anthony. When we adopted the second time, we were able to request a girl, and that's when Eliana came home to us. Now we're in the process, Lord willing, of adopting a third child from Guatemala. You can read about "Our Long Journey to Parenthood" in an article (http://web.archive.org/web/200010250242 ... em7650.asp) I wrote after we adopted Anthony. It tells in detail the story of how we met the first Eliana and started our family.

Danny Glover

I named my daughter Marcella, after the character in the Johnny Gruelle books about the adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Marcella was the mistress of the nursery. When Marcella was away, the toys would come to life and get into trouble. When their mistress returned, she would find them dirty or in disarray, and would scold them. Over the years it became clear that Marcella has a fiery nature, and then I found out that the name means "Mars" or "fiery planet." She also turned out to have curly hair (my first daughter had straight hair.) Wonder of wonders, the Marcella in the book had curly hair too.
Linda Moran, Ridgewood New Jersey

When I was pregnant with my sixth and final child I never even considered a boy's name, I just KNEW it was going to be a girl. I spent the entire span of my pregnancy delving into the creation of the perfect name for my new daughter.
Early on I had decided I really liked the name Samantha, Sam for short. But unfortunatly it was a very common name at this time and I have always been a firm believer in the idea of a person having a unique name to fit their unique personality.
After going through what seemed like thousands of names I had a brain storm. Our last name was Meyer,,, hmmm. What if I used her initials to spell SAM? In no time at all I had the perfect name for my daughter..Selina Allyse Meyer...SAM for short!

Debb :lol:

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"Life is an infinity journey of knowledge mixed with the intensity of emotion"dhb

My grandfather was married several times and had several sons, but he wasn't very original when it came to names. With four sons, he used the names Francis, Edward, James, Daniel, and Patrick in different combinations. My dad was Edward James, but he used neither name. He was called "Kelly," as in kelly green. We are very Irish, and my dad was raised by his Irish-born, Irish-speaking grandparents.

And although this is not what you want, I don't have kids, but I do have cats. Most of my cats have had human type names rather than pet type names. One time, our friends' cat was pregnant and about to give birth. I'd never seen kittens give birth, so they invited me over to watch. The first kitten came out a breech birth, so I immediately named him Wrong-Way Corrigan. I fell in love with him and had to have him, even though we already had three cats. Cory lived to be nineteen to the month and lived with me from the time he was 10 weeks old to the time he died. I watched him being born, and I was there when he died, peacefully, at home, spared that last terrifying trip in the cat carrier to the vet.

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Some days you're the dog. Some days you're the hydrant.

I've always admired how my cousin named her daughter after the four grandmothers--
Kathryn, Pauline, Emma, and Lee--which became Kathleen Emily.

My name was a compromise. Both of my parents wanted to name me after their father and couldn't settle on which one, Gerald or Edward. Eventually, they decided to take a piece of each one and I got the name Jared. That's about all i know of the story, but if you want any more info/elaboration you can contact me at jaredwade@gmail.com