<p>We have a little Olive in my neighborhood. I don’t see it as so awful, though Olivia has a far nicer ring to it. </p>
<p>My mom and her sisters have quite the set of names. Opal, Josephine and Edna. Wish I could ask my grandmother, who wrote poetry, what she was envisioning.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through this entire thread, so forgive if this has been mentioned: 18-1/2 years ago, I read a wonderful book called “Beyond Jennifer and Jason: What to Name Your Baby” (which I see has now been updated to “Beyond Jennifer and Jason and Madison and Montana”). One thing the authors addressed was the cycle of names. One cycle goes something like this: A name becomes trendy among the upper classes (Dinah was an example I remember). The middle classes, aspiring to follow the trendy uppers, adopt the name. The lower classes likewise, and so the name falls all the way down the socioeconomic ladder, and eventually fades even from the bottom. After a generation of non-use, the uppers re-discover the name, liking its freshness. The whole cycle takes four generations, or about a hundred years.</p>
<p>One year, my D’s dance group of 30 girls included 3 Kaylas, a Kaitlyn, a Caitlyn, and a Katie. I remember alot of Brittanys when she was very young, but I haven’t encountered one since early elementary school, so I don’t know where they all went.</p>
<p>My personal criteria for choosing a name were: Must not be trendy, must be feminine but not frilly, must be flexible (would fit any potential course in life from SAHM to Supreme Court Justice), must be easy to spell and pronounce, and must not led itself to obnoxious nicknames. End result: Laura.</p>
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<p>I have a friend who named her two little girls Violet and Grace. At first the names seemed so old-fashioned, but I bet she’s starting a trend!</p>
<p>^^Two of my friends have granddaughters Violet and Grace. Little Grace is named for her grandma.</p>
<p>Oh, Grace is another popular kid little kid name. I know at least four Grace’s under the age of ten. One of the Grace’s has a sister named Laurel. Maybe it’s a trend to put Grace with a sister who is a flower.</p>
<p>Let’s see…if DH and I wanted to use ancestor’s names for our girls, we could have chosen: Otillia, Josephine, Glenna, Ruth, Auline, Weta, Doris. I bet my D’s are glad we resisted. (Although some of the nicknames aren’t bad…Tillie, Jo, and Dori)</p>
<p>I once had a female school bus driver named Dorcas. Can you imagine growing up with that name now?</p>
<p>My name is uncommon. There was a movie actress / celebrity with a different spelling of my name, but I never met another person with my name until a few years ago; there’s a 14-yr old down the street that shares it.</p>
<p>Great Grandmother: Beulah
Grandmothers: Thelma, Annabelle
Grandfathers: Charles, Emory (goes by Steve), Carson
Aunts: Flora, Evelyn, Freda</p>
<p>I don’t like my name at all. Apparently I was named after a tugboat on a TV show in the 50’s. Yuk. My sister’s name is Connie - not Constance.</p>
<p>I remember running home from my first day of Kindergarten to complain to my mom “how could you give me such a name” My name is Candy… not Candice, Candie but Candy.</p>
<p>My mom told me that it was my dad’s idea. She wanted to name me Dorothy (can you see the wizard?)… She thought it would be cute and I could be called Dotty…</p>
<p>Needless to say I have NEVER complained about my name again! Although I do think that my name was part of the reason I became a smart @ss. (Candy give me some Candy; aren’t you sweet, Candio… you name it. And of course everyone thought they were being original. If I had a nickel everytime someone asked me if Candy was my REAL name… I’d be rich.</p>
<p>Here’s one for the never to be resurrected- Horace. My dad’s name. He was one of 15 kids and 13 were boys. I think his mom must have goten tired of coming up with boys names. Although nobody ever called him that. As a kid he was Buster, as an adult he was Jonesy- even my mom called him that. We always knew when people called the house looking for Horace, that the person didn’t know my dad and was probably trying to sell him something.</p>
<p>Candy is a great stripper/porn star name…but that probably wasn’t the career path your parents had in mind when they gave it to you.</p>
<p>I remember thinking it was hilarious when a new kid in school was named “Claude.” Sounded like “clod” which was what we called geeky kids back then. Also couldn’t stop laughing in 2nd grade when the teacher told us a strong wind was called a “gale,” as I had a loud and blustery cousin named “Gail.”</p>
<p>When I was growing up, my family moved from Michigan to a heavily Italian town in Massachusetts. I was surprised to find out “Rocco” was a legit name, not just something used in movies.</p>
<p>^^Yeah… if only I could dance… I am such a klutz. And I’m short, there goes that extra money I could have earned for my son’s college tuition. drats.
:)</p>
<p>On Whitepages.com there is (used to be?) a link so you could learn how common a certain name is. My first and last names are unusual enough and spelled so unusually there are only 4 (2 are related to me) of us in the world. Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I was standing on line at the library. I was holding my card and the young girl in front of me said “That’s my name, too!” Spelled differently though.</p>
<p>Re Candy as a girl’s name: my sister was a teacher and had a girl in her class named Candy Kane.</p>
<p>Did you hear the theory of creating a stripper-sounding name from your childhood dog’s name plus your street name as the last name?</p>
<p>Mine is Penny Timber.</p>
<p>My husband’s version for this game would be Sundae Knott.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through all of the pages either, but I remember when Bullet and I were pregnant with DD, I wanted to name her Alexandra and call her Alex. Bullet asked why? I told him I wanted her to have a strong name so she felt she could conquer anything (it means defender of mankind). I swear G*d listened and played the biggest joke on us.
We did name her Alex, but with an I, that girl will not back down on anything, thus she is strong. She is 5 foot and 100 lbs, but even her younger brother (6’2 and 230 lbs) runs away from her. She will be going to college next fall and her intended major is to be a child psychologist…i.e defender of mankind.</p>
<p>When one day our children start having grand children I will remind them becareful the name might really mean something.</p>
<p>Or eldest sons name was selected because Bullet always wanted a son with that name since he was 15. So how I could I deny him that a decade later? The irony is his name means rooted tree that moves. He is incredibly close to his family, but as an AFROTC cadet when he grads from college he will move.</p>
<p>Our youngests name means gift from G<em>d, and while I was in labor with him (we know the name before he was born), I had major complications, and said to Bullet if G</em>d just gives us one more healthy child, I will never ask for another (we wanted 4). He was born healthy, and when the nurse handed him to me, she asked what are you psychic? I said no why? Because that name means gift from G*d and this was a true gift.</p>
<p>Two of my nieces just had baby girls and the names are quite different from anything I would have come up with.</p>
<p>Piper Rose and Finley Wren</p>
<p>I have been doing my family genealogy and I wish I had heard of some of the old time Scandinavian names before I had kids.</p>
<p>My name would have been Missy Milltown. Bullets is Rusty Hilltop.</p>
<p>As far as strange real life names.</p>
<p>I had a classmates who was named after his grandfather Robert Pins, but so there was no confusion they called him Bobby. Yep…Bobby Pins</p>
<p>I had an employee named Dot, last name Head.</p>
<p>I have a friend that named their daughter IMA, after her mother that passed while she was pregnant. Last name Fink…IMA Fink</p>
<p>Swear on my kids lives these are true names.</p>
<p>I have always hated my name. It has never been popular in any generation. I attended Catholic grammar school where every other girl was named Mary Something…Mary, Mary Beth, Mary Ann,etc. I wanted to be a Mary or at least Elizabeth. The evil nuns did not consider my name to be very Catholic and reminded me of it quite frequently. I’m sure they thought I’d never get through the pearly gates with my name. </p>
<p>I took my husband’s name when we got married (to keep things simple) which has resulted in an ugly, alliterative mouthful. I wonder if its too late to revert to my maiden name (its only been 27 years) or else adopt a stage name???</p>
<p>Mansfield: if you don’t like your name, change it. If you’re in your 50’s (an assumption based on adding 27 to a reasonable marriage age), you’ll still likely live with the new name for thirty or forty years.</p>
<p>I was in one unit in the navy in which there was one guy whose last name was “Growc*ck” and another whose last name was “Cli+gard.”</p>
<p>I knew a girl who did not like her middle name and how it appeared on her wedding invitations so she had it legally changed…15 yrs later she was divorced, went back to her maiden name and her birth middle name :D</p>