Who were you named after?

March 21, 2016

baby of mine

 

One of my favorite topics to discuss with friends is baby names. I have always had a running list of favorites. I find it fascinating who people were named after or how their name was coined. While it used to be more of a common thing to name your child after relatives, it’s seems to be more frequent to just use whatever name strikes your fancy. ie: North, Cricket, Axl, Tennessee, etc.

I have also heard so many cool stories where the meaning of the name ends up relating to a circumstance in their life or has a parallel to a life event they experience. Has this happened to you?

We use the tradition of naming our kids after saints and relatives to give them good role models to look up to as they grow. They all have nicknames too of course. Fact: Veronica was nameless for 24 hours (I like to see their faces before I name them!), and we couldn’t decide on a middle name for Rocco until we were out of time and had to sign the birth certificate! 

Gabriel Joseph – Named after his dad + St. Gabriel. Joseph is my father’s and brother’s name (now two important people in his life).
Veronica Rose – Named after St. Veronica, and after my own middle name Rose. 
Maximilian Francis – Named after St. Maximilian and St. Francis (two of our heroic stories).
Rocco Samuel – Gabe chose this name after St. Rocco and the Samuel of the old testament.

So what about you? What is the story behind your name? Did you agree with your significant other on names? I have a couple sisters who are expecting little ones, and they are still debating their husbands on names!  I’ll be sending this post over to them to turn their wheels;) My sister Tricia just named her son Joseph Bennett. Such a good one isn’t it?

You can check out this site if you are curious to find out really thorough details on ethnicity history, similar namesakes, and meaning behind a name.

 

Leave a Comment

  • gosh i looove baby name talk. my rocco is named for my great grandfather, off the boat from napoli! and my maddalena rose gets her middle name from rosa in my grandmother’s italian ancestry. so, hey, we seem to have some good name taste in common, if i do say so! 😉

  • My mom had a friend in grade school named Melanie. I know nothing about the girl except my mom loved her name, but decided that Melody sounded better with our last name. I think my dad probably liked Melody better too, because he loves music. My middle name is Linnea after my great grandmother. It’s a fairly common Swedish name, so it’s a connection to our past as well.

  • According to my mom, I was named after a hotel clerk. She spotted her name plate, liked the name, and tucked it away until I was born. 🙂

  • I also love names! I’m all about family names. We picked Nolin as homage to my grandfather and dad whose first names are Olin, and then Samuel for my husband’s grandfather. I’m pregnant with our daughter and she’ll be Mabry Campbell. Mabry is just a name I love but Campbell was my middle name and my mom’s maiden name. I also keep a running list of favorites.

    • Mabry Campbell?! That is seriously the cutest name ever! I love how you tied them with your relatives. They make big impacts in their lives and definitely makes my son proud to share a name with his papa!

  • I am named after a soap opera! I forget which one I will have to ask my Mom but it was either Guiding Light or Young & the Restless. My Moms favorite soap opera hunk was torn between two women…. Ashley and Niclole… And so here I am, Ashley Nicole. Either that or she just turned to page 1 of the baby name book and called it a day as I’m pretty sure both of those names were in the top 5 for a good 5-6 year stretch when I was born!

  • We named our daughter (8 months old) Eloise Virginia. Eloise was a name we both loved the sound of, but my husband and I are writers and we also love the storybook character from Eloise at the Plaza and hope some of her zeal and creativity is channeled through our daughter. And Virginia is her middle name because that is where my husband and I met, fell in love, and were married. We love names that have place or literary significance!

    • Chelsea, Eloise at the plaza is one of my faves so I totally am with you on that name;) And I love that you used Virginia after where you met. That is the coolest.

  • Virginia Evelyn – my grandmother and my husband’s grandmother
    Charles David – my father in law and my father
    Astrid – considering this for #3, not a family name but it somehow resonates with us

  • Danny and I selected baby names for any possible child we might have the first year of dating. This planner mentality was especially important because Danny’s mom passed away a month before we got married and we were able to tell her what our kids names would/will be.

    So far we have our Lucas Mikhail. Lucas after St. Luke because Danny insisted his parents would want a biblical name. I am a Rusaphile and Mikhail is the Russian form of Michael after my mentor/high school history teacher. I loved the name before Danny and I started dating but now it also works because Mikhail is Polish too – Danny 100% Polish – and his Dad’s middle name is Michael.

  • Saint names for us too! I love that tradition–and Magdalena is beautiful. It’s a great witness and example. My mom gave me a French name because somehow I looked like a French girl to her. She said she could picture me at a cafe in France. I’ve been, I loved it, and I thought about that the whole time I was in Paris.

  • Love these! My parents are very Catholic and my mom always loved the name Regina (which as I’m sure you know, Mary is often referred to as Regina because it means queen in Latin). So she chose that and my middle name is Mae which was my grandma’s middle name. I also love hearing people’s name stories and the meaning. If I am lucky enough to have a baby it will be family names for sure. xxx

  • I love my name. My first name Catherine, is after my mom’s oldest sister who died at the age of 3. My mom never even knew her. My middle name, Helen, is after my mom’s mother who died before my parents were even married. My mom is my best friend and I feel so honored to be named after two people that she loved so dearly and lost

  • Caeli Marie- named after Regina Caeli meaning Queen of Heaven, and Marie as a derivative of Mary
    Maryn Elizabeth- named after the feast of the Visitation when Mary went to visit Elizabeth
    Cazimir Kolbe- St.Cazimir of Poland and St. Maximillian Kolbe
    Aquinas Joseph- St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph
    Pregnant too- waiting to name our next baby in a few weeks!

  • I love the meaning behind your children’s names. We named our son Jayden Anthony… Jayden because it was the first J name I mentioned and we both loved it. Anthony, is the same middle name as his father. My husband is Joe Anthony, his father is Jose Antonino (the spanish version of Joe Anthony) and we both agreed we didn’t want to have a Jr. but we wanted his name to start with a J and share the same middle name. =)

    My name on the other hand is from an 80’s soap opera, Dynasty. lol

    • That is such a fun name. My sister is holding on to the name Anthony as a middle name too! And I think Fallon is an awesome one of course:)

  • This is so sweet. I love the thought and effort put into your childrens names.

    Is there any chance you would do a post on a baby items must have list. I figure after 4 children and growing up with a big family you would have a very good idea on the necessities vs luxury items.

    Thanks!

  • Pat Schwab

    All three of my kids have Irish names with my middle name for one of my girls’ middle name and my husband first name for my son’s middle name. My son picked his sister’s name because we had 2 names and when he came to the hospital (he was almost 4) we let him pick the name. My other daughter’s legal name is Katie but people always ask if it is Katharine or Kathleen. I choose to name her what I planned on calling her. Picking baby names is fun.

  • Lauren B

    My name was just one that my parents liked (and later swore up and down that it wasn’t popular when they named me!), but my middle name, Bennett, is my dad’s middle name and my great grandmother’s maiden name. And, coincidence, I was born on her birthday! I kinda love that it’s not a girly name and people are always surprised to hear that. 🙂
    My daughter, Margaret Elisabeth followed the same pattern- the first was just one we loved, and the second is my sister’s middle name. I wanted to give her a good, strong name- one that could sound like a Supreme Court justice if she wants.

  • Kent Liesemeyer

    You probably realize that Liesemeyer is not a very common last name. My daughter, Veronica Rose Liesemeyer was born on December 2, 2002 in Tucson, Arizona. I was surprised to learn of another girl with the exact same same name! She is also named after St. Veronica. Veronica was born day after a visit to Reid Park Rose Garden in Tucson. We were walking around to stimulate labor and we enjoyed to beautiful roses growing there. I am wondering if (or how) we are related.

    • WHAT?!! That is crazy ironic! Wow. Maybe their paths will cross one day. Love that they were both named after St. Veronica (a powerhouse!).

  • I am obsessed with baby names! I’m many years away from having one of my own but I always have a list so I can see which ones will stand the test of time. My name is Annaliese but I have the nicknames Liesey and Lulu which is fun, but sometimes confusing… But I like that different aspects of my life call for different names! Loved this post!

  • […] Speaking of mothers… I’ve always been fascinated by names, so I loved this little piece […]

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