Question of the Week: Who are you named after? [closed]

Question

Who were you named after? A family member? Someone famous?

Please tell us with an answer below. You could also answer on Facebook or upload the question image to any social media site. If you share it you may get family members talking.

Comments

My father, Dr. Jerry E. King, was an anesthesiologist who was quite passionate about his work. I was named after his favorite scrub nurse and the patron saint of anesthesiologists. Could be worse, had Daddy been a psychiatrist I could have been named Dymphna.

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I was named after my grand father Robert Gerrish and my father Paul Gerrish so I am Robert Paul Gerrish.  My wife and I thought this was a nice tradition but we preferred using grandparents. Our first child was named Elizabeth Rose after her grandmothers.  Our second after her great grandmothers so she is Christina Anne, but her personality turned out that the other two great grandmother's would have fit her better had we used Bertha Grace.  Our third child is named after his grandfathers Paul Jacob.

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I was named after Suellen O'Hara from Gone With The Wind.  My mom was reading the book when I was born and like the name.

Answer 1

I was named after both of my grandfathers. My first name, Clayton, came from my maternal grandfather, Clayton Ray Bolick. And my middle name, Anthony, came from my paternal grandfather, Davis Anthony Martinez.

Answer 2

My sister and I were named NOT after anyone. My mother was a teacher, and a key criterion was that out names not remind her of "problematic" students.

My father, John Battiscombe Gunn (though he was always called Iain) was named after HIS father   Battiscombe George Gunn (known as Jack), who was named after his grandmother, Mary Dally Battiscombe (known as Dolly), who was her wealthy parent's sole heiress.  There are several other Battiscombes (as first or middle name) scattered among her descendants.

Answer 3

I was named after two aunts, Aunt Marion Ceruti, who lived less than a year and never married:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ceruti-13

and Aunt Grace V. Dawson Olmsted, who lived to be 100 and had three husbands:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dawson-7511

I am somewhere in between these two extremes ;-)

Answer 4

Very different for me. I was named for the last syllable of my last name. My mother liked the sound of LYNN mclaughLIN.

I've learned that Lynn means lake in Welsh and Laugh (or Lough) means the same in Irish, so I think that part is pretty cool. It might mean I'm all wet, but I have always appreciated lakes, rivers and the sea.

Answer 5

I was named after my grandmother, who was named after a neighbor that by change came by when my great grandmother went into labor while home alone, and saved the day.

That neighbor also had 4 children and named one of them after my great grandmother.

Later that neighbor's husband disappeared. They only found his hat down by the harbor. Years later somebody met him abroad...

I've always wanted to verify this story. Maybe someday I'll be able to do so.

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Answer 6

My father was obsessed with the actress Julie London so that is who I am named after.  Not sure how my mom agreed to that one.,

Answer 7

I was named for my maternal grandfather Thomas McNeal and Augustine Armentrout. There was a father and son both named Augustine. The father was my paternal grandmother's great grandfather and the son was her grandfather.  One of the two was a member of the party of men who discovered Massanutten Caverns in Rockingham County, Virginia.  My father always said that I was named for that Augustine, but he never told me which one it was.  The caverns has been closed for years, but the lodge that was the main office is still in use.

Answer 8

My father told me he named me after a girl named Connie he had a crush on in school. I suspect he didn't share that with my mom. I'm surprised he was the one that named me because he wasn't even there the night I was born. He was on his first date with my step mom, whom he married a couple of years later and for the remainder of her life.

Answer 9

I was named for one of my father's sisters. While she was alive no matter my age I was little Kathryn.

Answer 10

I was named after James Vivian Whitfield, a state legislator from North Carolina, and my middle name is my Grandmother's maiden name, Cowan.

Answer 11

I have 3 given names; I was named after my father and two grandfathers. One of the names goes back to my G-G-grandfather. Another goes back to a G-G-uncle. In my research, my dad seems to be the first Paul.

Answer 12

My first name is my mother's middle name, Margaret, which I have never used until the government got in my life. My middle name, Elaine, is from the friend that introduced my parents.

Answer 13

Brenda Frasier -a debutante in the 1930s.

Answer 14

I was named for both my paternal Grandmother and my mom's best friend.  Since the two of them were never in the same place at the same time after my parents' wedding, each believed I was named after her and Mom never told them otherwise. ;)

Answer 15

I was named after my Aunt Carol - That is why my family calls me Carol Lynn and they called her Carol or "Aunt Carol" = She married my mother's brother. My mother and Aunt Carol were very close before she married my Uncle and after. 

Carolyn Kay (Gracy) Samson

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gracy-81

Answer 16

My dad didn't have a middle name, just the initial K.  As the oldest, he was the favorite brother to most of his siblings, so when the nieces and nephews started coming along, many of them had the middle name Kay.  My middle name is Kay as well.  I think there are over ten of us in my generation and I have found a few in the next two generations!

Answer 17

Who was I named after? My father's youngest sister, Nancy, who had died as a teenager and when I was introduced for the first time to my paternal grandmother, my Mother began to tell her that they had considered naming me Nancy after...she got no further, my grandmother was ecstatic! So, Nancy I  became and my planned name, Deloi, became my second name. I was to be named for the village where the Fijian workers lived on the plantation my mother grew up on. As an adult I began to search for my family story and sought to obtain the birth certificate for the Nancy I was named after. There was no such person!  Eventually I found her, her name was Hazel Nancy. Even my father had no idea that her given name was actually Hazel. The wonderful person I married decided that I should  be called Nan and for the next 70 years I have been known as Nan.

Answer 18

I was named after Wilma Lee of Wilma Lee & Stony Cooper, country music singers in 1955 when I was born.  Apparently my parents liked their music, lol.  No relationship.

Answer 19

Embarrassing as it is. I was named after my mothers weird and favourite idols. First was not my father, but her favourite Australian actor "Rodney Taylor", my second name is from her favourite movie "Shane" starring Alan Ladd. My other middle name is from another of her favourite movies "Francis, The Talking Mule". I did say it was weird. My mother obviously had some sense of humour I guess. And a love of her movies, you decide.

I have managed to forgive her and her humour. :)

Comments

Count yourself fortunate that she was a fan of mule Francis, and not a certain talking horse.  I can just see you going through life as Mr Mister Riley.  

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True. I guess it could have been far worse.. ;)

Answer 20

My Mom's mother was Marie Elise so I am Carolyn Marie and my sister is May Elise.  Mom was named Mary Elise.  Mom's grandmother was Elise.  Those names are from the Blanchard side of the family.  Our brother is named John Flynt, both names were Mom's daddy's name, John Flynt Tomlinson.  Flynt was a family surname on grandpa's mother's side (Safronia Flynt).  So yes, the names of grandparents were continued on.