Since I don’t plan on having any children for awhile I probably won’t have any names to mention here until that day comes, but I’ve been curious as to the authors’ stories behind their children’s names. [name]Pam[/name] and [name]Linda[/name], if you don’t mind sharing what led you to choosing the names you used for your children I’d like to know.
Thanks.
Ha! Good question. This is [name]Pam[/name], and we didn’t know the sex of our oldest child. If a boy, we were going to name him [name]Henry[/name], and we could never agree on a girl’s name. I was very surprised when we DID have a girl. The name my husband liked was [name]Molly[/name] and I liked [name]Rory[/name], which seemed like a very daring choice for a girl back in the 80s. Because of her energetic, feisty personality, [name]Rory[/name] won – and fits her much better than [name]Molly[/name].
Our next two children were both boys, which we found out during the pregnancies. I insisted that our older son be named [name]Joseph[/name] after my father – and called [name]Joe[/name], which I love – and so told my husband that he could choose any middle name he wanted. In the hospital, he announced his choice: [name]Leopold[/name]. I was aghast! But it was a family name and so I had to keep my word, and now I love it.
Our youngest child my husband and I wanted to name [name]Ned[/name], short for [name]Edward[/name], but the older kids (they were 10 and 4) rebelled. They told us [name]Ned[/name] was a “nerd” name. They also nixed [name]Harry[/name]. So [name]Owen[/name], which had been my grandfather’s middle name, was the only one we all agreed on.
[name]Linda[/name]'s out of town at a wedding, so I’ll let her tell her own story when she gets back. Thanks for asking! I think most people have great stories about the names they choose. On our old site, babynamebible.com, this was the only message board we had and people posted really great names and stories behind them.
[name]Pam[/name], I think that overall you did a great job at picking out your children’s names and put good thought into each of them.
I knew a little bit about how you chose [name]Rory[/name] for your daughter because of a news article you had on the old site mentioning her name and from a section of Beyond [name]Shannon[/name] and [name]Sean[/name] which mentioned the naming dilemma you had when she was born. From what I recall you had struggled to find the “right” name for her, and eventually found a name that had all the qualities you wanted. I’m also curious as to what led you to think of the name [name]Rory[/name] when deciding to consider it for her.
As for [name]Joseph[/name], I like how your husband had an “eccentric” name that he wanted to use but you weren’t sure about ([name]Leopold[/name]), so you decided to let that be [name]Joseph[/name]'s middle name and use the name you wanted to in the first spot! (This brings me to a big reason why I don’t plan on having any children anytime soon; I’m single as of right now. In the naming arena, I haven’t had to deal with the reality of coming up with common ground between my tastes and my partner’s.)
Not much for me to comment on [name]Owen[/name]'s name besides what I’ve already mentioned.
Thanks for your input!
When I was looking for [name]Rory[/name]‘s name, I wanted a name that was Irish to reflect my ethnic background and was also interested in finding a name that meant red to echo my last name [name]Redmond[/name]. And I very much liked the idea of boyish, energetic names for girls. I found the name [name]Rory[/name] skimming in the boys’ section of an old baby-naming dictionary. I forgot about RFK’s youngest daughter [name]Rory[/name] [name]Elizabeth[/name] but that was the same name we settled on!
There is a name that my husband and I both liked early on, [name]Flora[/name], that we let friends talk us out of – and I still love the name and wish we had used it! Though my husband says now that [name]Rory[/name] is much more of a [name]Rory[/name] than a [name]Flora[/name], which is true.
Since I have only one child, my answer will be a lot shorter than [name]Pam[/name]'s. My daughter’s name is [name]Chloe[/name] [name]Samantha[/name]. My husband is British and when we were looking for a name, we found that we had very different takes on names and when we looked through books (this was before Beyond [name]Jennifer[/name] and [name]Jason[/name]), we had a hard time agreeing on anything. Then suddenly, when we got to the C’s, [name]Chloe[/name] just jumped off the page at us and we knew that was it. It turned out to be a happy choice, because she has always loved her name. She was born just a few months after my father, [name]Samuel[/name], had died, so [name]Samantha[/name] was a natural for her middle name.
[name]Linda[/name], like I had said with [name]Pam[/name]'s children’s names I think you did a great job with picking out your daughter’s name (and thanks for your comment)!
Since this thread over four years old was resurrected, I thought about asking another question to [name]Pam[/name] and [name]Linda[/name]: Does it look like either of you will be grandmothers anytime soon? Since all of your kids are grown (or almost grown, I’m not sure about [name]Pam[/name]'s youngest), I wondered if any of your children are in a position where they’ll likely to have kids of their own in the near future or not.
It’ s not imminent but I’m sure will be a lot of fun if and when it happens! I’m not sure I’ll be allowed to give naming advice, though.
Interesting stories ladies, thank you for sharing.
You probably already have! I inherited so much of my mom’s name taste. I love the name she gave me so I tend to think she knows what’s up in that department. 
My taste is very reminiscent of hers. You have likely passed on many great naming principles.