Since I was around 8 years old, I always had names in mind that I wanted to name a future son and daughter. After so many years of planning what to name my children someday, I find it ironic that both of my sons ended up with names that my husband suggested. I didn’t use ANY of my original favorite boy names.
I’ve written about this in a past thread, but I’ll tell the story again:
Child #1: When expecting our first child, we learned we were having a boy. Amidst the joy of starting our family, I was dismayed to find that my husband vetoed ALL my favorite boy names, and, likewise, I didn’t care for the names he suggested. After a while, the situation began to feel a little hopeless until one day he said, “What about [name]Daniel[/name]?” I had never taken much notice of the name before, but I had to admit that I loved the way [name]Daniel[/name] sounded, it’s solid history, it’s Biblical roots, and it was a very handsome, strong name. I was sold. For a middle name, my husband asked if we could use his father’s middle name, [name]Glen[/name]. I always thought it was a nice name, and it flowed well with [name]Daniel[/name]. (I feel that the hard G sound in [name]Glen[/name] is manly and does a good job of separating the two Ls in the combo of [name]Daniel[/name] [name]Glen[/name].) // I didn’t realize that the name [name]Daniel[/name] was so popular at the time, but, fortunately, my son (who is now a teenager) was the only [name]Daniel[/name] in his class all the way through elementary school and currently just knows two or three others with the name at school.
Child #2: When we found out we were expecting a second boy, I was worried that my husband and I were never going to be able to pull off another miracle of agreeing on a boy’s name. Once again, we each vetoed the others’ suggestions until one day my husband said, “What about [name]Timothy[/name]?” I had never seriously considered the name before, but I realized I always had high regard for the name. I loved each syllable, and liked the idea of using another Bible name. Any reservations I had quickly vanished, and I’ve found the name to be perfect for my younger son. For his middle name, I wanted to keep a promise I made to my maternal grandfather when I was a teenager. The last time I saw my grandfather, I told him that I would name a son after him someday. So, ever after, I planned and hoped to give a son the middle name [name]August[/name]. Unfortunately, I made that promise without considering that my future husband would have to be on board with the name. My husband turned down [name]August[/name]. Instead, we used a name with the same origin as [name]August[/name], that being [name]Austin[/name]. ([name]Austin[/name] is a medieval short form of [name]Augustine[/name], derived from [name]Augustus[/name].) Thus, our second son is [name]Timothy[/name] [name]Austin[/name].
Child #3: Fortunately, naming our third child turned out to be a piece of cake. A few years before I met my husband, I concluded that I wanted my future daughter’s name to be [name]Rebecca[/name]. First of all, I loved the way it sounded. The name was not very popular when I was growing up. None of my relatives had the name, and I was only aware of an occasional [name]Becky[/name] and one [name]Becca[/name] in my school. I found the literary references to be enchanting. I also loved it’s ancient origins going back to Old Testament times. It’s been used in [name]America[/name] since the Pilgrims. The impression I had from the name was of a pioneer girl (ala “[name]Little[/name] House on the [name]Prairie[/name]”) wearing a sunbonnet and running through a flowery meadow. I was so relieved that my husband loved the name [name]Rebecca[/name] too. // I did not mention it to my husband, but during the pregnancy, I briefly went through a phase of considering an M name. My late mother’s name was ‘[name]Mary[/name] [name]Jane[/name].’ Also, my maternal grandmother (whom I was named after) had an [name]Mar[/name]- name. (I later learned that all my known direct maternal ancestors had a first or middle name starting with M.) The only M name I liked enough to consider was [name]Marissa[/name]. It was tempting to keep the M name tradition going, but I realized that I liked the name [name]Rebecca[/name] more, and it seemed unrealistic to expect a tradition of M names to continue indefinitely. // For my daughter’s middle name, there was never any question. It was always destined to be [name]Jane[/name]. As I mentioned, my mother was ‘[name]Mary[/name] [name]Jane[/name],’ and she passed [name]Jane[/name] on to me as my middle name.
I look forward to reading more stories of how others chose their children’s names!