Good Morning. I am off from work today, Chance and I are going to Staples to speak to a group about Kinship Partners. Chance has been in our families life for 8 years now and we are going to talk about what we have done the past 8 years and how Kinship has really brought to each of us a better, fuller life.
A conversation I really enjoy having with people is discussing what our names would have been if we born the opposite sex. If I would have been a boy my name would have been Rory. Apparently, my parents had told me, there was a great western actor Rory Calhoun who I would have been named after.
Hoo boy… maybe that’s why I really don’t like country music…..
Oh… and just to clarify…. Rory is the one on the right. 😉
Book Journey 
My mom told me I would have been either Edward, after my father, or Carl. Where Carl came from, no one knows. LOL
Love that Anna! It’s so fun to see where the names came from!
Ha, I love it. My parents were all set to name me Roger if I had been a boy. Thank god I wasn’t!
We would have been friends Book Whisperer, Roger and Rory. LOL I feel like you – thanks goodness I was not a boy! 😛
i would apparently have been called curren or (karan in the sanskrit). then my brother was going to get that name but my aunt got is first! it is a bit close to karen, which would be rough on a boy–probably best that it went the way it did…:)
It’s kind of cool… Curren. I like the sound of it but you are right… it might have made the early school days a little rough. 😀
If I had been born a boy I would have been Martin or Stephen. Instead my younger brother is Stephen. I know he is glad they chose Stephen and I love that name as well.
That is a great name Helen…. 😀
I would likely have been John Chester, Jr. since that is the name my 2-years-younger brother got. I am still wondering where they got Kathleen which seems a little unlikely for a Polish-Finnish girl. Still better than being named after my grandmother Olga though or my mom Doris.
My Grandmother’s name was Doris… I won’t even tell you what her brothers used to call her although if you think really hard you can figure it out.
She went by her middle name, Myrtle because of all the teasing, but of course, i always knew her as Gram 🙂
When she was a child and teen, my mom was known as Honey to her family and friends. It got confusing when my California cousin started to refer to her as Aunt Honey because I hadn’t ever heard her called that. That is what she had heard from her mom.
I would have been Eric Anthony. Now I ask you – do I look like an Eric?! LOL
Its kind of sophisticated Heather! 😛
I was born on July 4th, and I am told that when she was in the throes of labor my mother said “If it’s a boy, we’re naming it Yankee Doodle!” I’m really glad I am female!
That’s hilarious! Love it – what a great story!
Everyone but my mother thought I was going to be a boy, but my mother turned out to be right (as usual). Still, she had the name ready: Magne (a bit hard to pronounce for you English-speakers, I guess), because she thought it was such a pretty name. I ended up being named after my great-grandmother Henriette instead. 🙂
I like it Hilde, I would love to know how you pronounce it! Is it like mag – nee? Or magna?
Neither, actually. The e at the end is more like the vowel in words like “let” and “head”, short and sharp. The symbol ɛ if you know your phonetics. Both names are variations of old Norse names. Magne means “power, strength” and Hilde means “battle, fight”. I should have had a brother. 😉
Thanks Hilde ! 😀
I would have been William (the third), after my father and grandfather (junior and senior). Instead, I got the first names of my mother’s only sister and my dad’s only sister, and my brother got to be “the third” — though he was Billy to the family.
Great story Bonnie – and fun that your brother got the name!
I would have been Tristan Ryne (after the knight of the Golden Table and the great Cubs 2nd baseman). Overall I am very glad to have been a girl.
I like the name Tristan and had no idea about the knight of the Golden Table! Very royalty! 😀
They never told me what my name would have been…at any rate, I didn’t like the one they chose, so I changed it in adulthood!
And I’m not telling….LOL.
It’s hard to picture you as a “Rory,” but that’s an Irish name, and so is “Sheila.” Either they’re Irish or have an affinity for the Irish….
GAH! Not telling????? Laurel (or whoever you are – LOL!)
I am totally Irish – maiden name McKinney. No kidding 🙂
My name would have been Ricky, but since I was a girl and was born with a twin brother, they named him Ricky and me Vicki.
Great names – I like them both and how cure you both must have been growing up Vicki! 😀
LOVE it! What a quick and fun question to answer. If I had been born a boy, I would have been called Darren; which always reminds me of Bewitched. I am happy that I’m a girl. 🙂
Darren is totally bewitched Care – that is so awesome! 😀
Zachary. But I think it was a point of some contention (or simply not finalized), because they didn’t want a name that could be easily shortened, nickname-able.
Zachary and Hannah both seen to me like such strong names! I like them both. 😀
My mom wanted to name me Robert after my dad if I was a boy. But when I turned out to be a girl, mom tried Roberta, but dad vetoed that. He also vetoed Bertha, his mom’s name (thank heavens!). They finally decided to name after my mom’s mom, Linda.
I think it is a great pick Linda – it’s so fun to hear the stories behind the names. 😀
When my first son was born we had all this stuff because my husband is Albert the 2nd. I really didn’t want to tag a little baby with such a big name as Albert the 3rd. My mom really wanted me to name him after my dad, Gary, who had passed away.
I gave AL the choice since I was the one who didn’t want an Albert. So Al picked Bradley and then Nicholas (because he was born December 16th, and then we added Gary after that….
so he was Bradly Nicholas Gary DeChantal. When our second son was born we dropped the Gary from Brad’s name and made it Justin’s middle name. 🙂
Well I don’t know what my name would have been… my mom couldn’t remember the boy names they had chosen… but I know what my oldest daughter’s name would have been. We had picked out the name Deacon, but she turned out to be Miranda.
My second daughter became Allison but she would have been Cameron had she been a boy.
LOL… hmmm I think I would have wanted to be, Dillon after my moms maiden name.
I like Dillon, I always thought that was a great name Deb – and I like both your boy names too.
The girls names I had picked out and never got to use were:
Tania Fawn (Fawn after my sisters middle name)
or
Tara Elaine (Tara after my sister and Elaine after my mom)
I was named Michelle for two reasons. One, because my Dad’s name is Michael and Michelle is the feminine form of Michael and two, there was a cheerleader named Michelle in my mom’s high school and she always loved the name (how funny that I ended up being a cheerleader all through high school!). If I would have been a boy, I would not have been named Michael because my dad already had a son by a previous marriage named Michael. My mom told me that my name would have been Clifford Michael…ugh! Although I guess Cliff wouldn’t have been too bad. Let’s just say I’m glad I was a girl!
LOL Michelle….. some names (like Clifford) just seem so big to put on a baby. Cliff would have been doable.
I would have been Derek. Derek Charles David, after Dad’s dad, Mum’s dad and Dad’s stepdad. I am very glad I turned out to be a Katherine Ann.
That would have been quite the name Katie 😀
The name Trish is short for Patricia, which is my birthname. My mother didn’t want anyone calling me Patty or Pat, which I CAN’T STAND to this day. So I adopted Trish, or Tricia, or even Tricie (which is what my family has endeared me with.)
Patricia is used in formality.
My middle name is Beline (pronounced BUH-LEEN). I am the last of 4 siblings, all girls, and all our names rhyme!
Sacha Corine
Reesa Norine
Alicia Ilene
Patricia Beline
(We often wonder what our parents were smoking!)
If I were a BOY, my name would still have the initials P.B. and my name would’ve been Paul Benjamin. Thank God I was a girl! However, I often wonder, if I were a boy, my name would’ve messed up the rhyme scheme!
That is so fantastic Trish – love the middle names!
Haha! Oh yeah, my name would have been Jesse because my mom was a huge Rick Springfield fan!
Not laughing…. not laughing at all. 😛
Jesse is a great name!
My name would have been Robert. Not sure where my parents got that from. Then my aunt and uncle took that name for their next boy (no idea why they wanted that name). Anyway, then my brother got a completely different name.
Robert is OK, I think, but I like Judith (my name) better.
Good point Judith – I like that 😀
I think my parents had Glen chosen as a boy’s name.
Glen is one of those names that I know a couple people have and I like those guys and that makes me really like the name. You ever do that?
I used to really like the name Devin then I met a guy named Devin who I just did not like at all. There went the name because when I think of the name – I think of that guy.
😛
I was going to be named Michael Gabriel. Michael after my dad and then Gabriel because they are both angel’s names. My mom saw my name in a book of baby names, and ever since then I’ve been correcting people, “No, it’s not pronounced Alice…” I still prefer my name over their boy name choice though. 🙂
I love the idea behind your boy name Alyce. I like the way your name is pronounced and whenever I go to your blog I think of that…. rhymes with peace 😀
I don’t think there was ever any other name for me. For my brother there are still notepads filled with name combos in the attic. My sister was even worse because mom wanted something ‘really unique’. So I got Alexandra Elizabeth, my brother got Matthew Christopher and my sister got Tegan Marie.
These are such great names Lexie!
Good question…I’ll have to find out. I do know that my parents changed my name from Kellie Dawn to Jill Annette at the last minute. I don’t know what they had planned for a boy.
That;s interesting Jill. I was suppose to be Sheila Marie but a lady in the hospital at the same time as my mom had a daughter a few hours before me and named her Sheila Marie. I became Sheila Ann.
All through school, all the way to graduation I went to school with the Sheila Marie who graduated with me as well as shared my birthdate. 😀
Maybe it was the same Sheila Marie?
Oh it is Jill – oops if I did not make that clear 😀
Our moms knew each other because of that day in the hospital.
I love the fact that you’re involved in a mentorship program. You do so many terrific things in the community!
Thanks – I love it too and it has been such a blessing in our life. Love that kid!
My mother wanted to name me Rebecca, but my father said no way. If I was a boy, I was going to be named Dennis after my uncle so they called me Denise after him instead (thank goodness).
I love how many of us are thankful that we were girls! 😀
I would have been either Phillip Donald or Donald Phillip (after my dad & grandpa). Personally, had I been a boy, I would have been hoping for Phillip as the first name!
My husbands brother is Donald Joseph and he goes by Joe. 😉