Hi All,
I had an email discussion with a friend this weekend regarding baby names. (While Jim and I have shared our proposed names with many people that ask in conversation, I can not bring myself to commit them to writing just yet.) She shared some stories regarding the naming of her children, which made me want to know more about how my name came about.
My mom liked the name "Tricia". Richard Nixon was president at the time I was born, and he had a daughter named Tricia. It's possible that influenced her, as surely there was a lot of media coverage of the family. My middle name "Kay" comes from my Great Grandma Catherine Fink and Godmother Cathy. I remember times in adolescence, particularly 7th grade, that I did not care for my name. I wrote in some class assignment that I wanted to be named Tiffany, which I thought was much "cuter". My teacher tried to convince me that Tricia was a much more sensible name (no offense to any Tiffanies out there!).
As for my last name, again growing up, I would have gladly exchanged it for my married name - Manning: easy to pronounce, easy to spell. Nobody could ever get Casari right. But, as I've aged, I've really come to love and embrace my maiden name (and first name too). I love that it's unique. I strongly associate my maiden name with my Grandpa Casari. He was very proud of his Italian heritage, which I came to understand and appreciate as I grew. Furthermore, Grandpa Casari was a wonderful person who simply loved life, loved to tell stories, play jokes and make people laugh. Today would have been his 85th birthday. Sadly, he passed away almost two years ago. I miss his kindness and his humor. Here are a few pictures of my Gramps....
I had an email discussion with a friend this weekend regarding baby names. (While Jim and I have shared our proposed names with many people that ask in conversation, I can not bring myself to commit them to writing just yet.) She shared some stories regarding the naming of her children, which made me want to know more about how my name came about.
My mom liked the name "Tricia". Richard Nixon was president at the time I was born, and he had a daughter named Tricia. It's possible that influenced her, as surely there was a lot of media coverage of the family. My middle name "Kay" comes from my Great Grandma Catherine Fink and Godmother Cathy. I remember times in adolescence, particularly 7th grade, that I did not care for my name. I wrote in some class assignment that I wanted to be named Tiffany, which I thought was much "cuter". My teacher tried to convince me that Tricia was a much more sensible name (no offense to any Tiffanies out there!).
As for my last name, again growing up, I would have gladly exchanged it for my married name - Manning: easy to pronounce, easy to spell. Nobody could ever get Casari right. But, as I've aged, I've really come to love and embrace my maiden name (and first name too). I love that it's unique. I strongly associate my maiden name with my Grandpa Casari. He was very proud of his Italian heritage, which I came to understand and appreciate as I grew. Furthermore, Grandpa Casari was a wonderful person who simply loved life, loved to tell stories, play jokes and make people laugh. Today would have been his 85th birthday. Sadly, he passed away almost two years ago. I miss his kindness and his humor. Here are a few pictures of my Gramps....
Me and Gramps way back when....
Grandma, Grandpa and I at Lisa and Eric's wedding in July '06
A photo of Grandma and Grandpa
Love always Grandpa - you will never be forgotten!
And on with the name game...... Please feel free to share a comment with any anecdotes you have regarding your name, your children's' names, etc. You do not have to have a blogging account to make a comment. Just hit the comment link.
Here is my friend Nancy's story that inspired the Name Game to get you started.....
When I was pregnant for Steven, I chose a girls name of Nicole Louise, after my mother. I hadn't picked a boy's name, as I was determined to have a girl. As your mother can attest to, back then we didn't know in advance. When I first saw Gene (husband) after the delivery, I said Steven Eugene or Timothy Eugene. He said he didn't like the name Timothy. (Little did we know that our neighbor Teala had recently had a boy which they had named Timothy John)(Teala later became my best friend, which we remain today, and our boys grew up together.)
When I was pregnant for Rex, the girl's name was again Nicole Louise, and no name for a boy. Rex was born by emergency c-section on a Monday morning. (Back then I stayed in the hospital 5 days.) The night before we were to go home, I still didn't have a name for him. They said I couldn't leave until the baby had a name. That night we settled for Rex Leonard, after a t.v. minister and my brother-in-law.
When I was pregnant for Nicole, I was determined it would be another boy.(My friend Teala also had four boys by then) I can't remember if I had picked out a boys name, but I had become so tired of Nicole Louise, that I decided if for some outside chance I had a girl, I would name her Amanda Marie. However, I failed to tell Gene. Nicole was born again by emergency c-section at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids at 11:30 p.m. They whisked her away to NICU. Because she was premature, they had Gene go to the nursery while they finished with me in surgery. They asked Gene what her name would be. He said Nicole, but couldn't remember the middle name. Back then the nurse's had their names on their gowns in masking tape. Gene looked and the nurses name was Michelle, so he said, "Nicole Michelle." Thus Nicole became named after the first nurse she had in the nursery. At 35 years, I decided not to try for Amanda Marie.
3 comments:
Aw, now I want to know what your potential names are!
My son was named by my husband: Damian Alexander. I wanted to name him Arthur, but could not settle on a middle name. He was nearly Damian Arthur, then, but I decided to "save" Arthur for just in case.
We decided on a name somewhere around 8 months, but kept it a secret from everyone. I didn't want to hear opinions from people regarding associations between Damian and some movie I had never even seen or cared about.
Then, in my ninth month, I hit the pregnancy paranoia. I was scared to death that our decisive ultrasound was wrong and that it was a girl. I frantically searched for a girl name that I liked, but could not find anything. Once again, I went with my husband's choice. So, had Damian been a girl, he would have been dubbed Amelia Jane.
For being such an onomastic dork, I sure am undecisive and boring in my own choices :)
Also, just FYI, if you are ever looking for genuine name meanings, do not use the Baby Center or other commercialized name sites' information. It is usually inaccurate. Use www.behindthename.com
Miss you, Chet. Tricia, my heart is with you and your Gram today.
I think you know our story, but I read a book just out of college (The Witching Hour by Anne Rice) in which the protagonist was named "Rowan". I've liked the name ever since...a lot of people think we have two boys, but I don't care...still like the name. "Grace" as a middle name *should* clear it up (though it doesn't always!)
Evan was just a name that Scott and I mutually agreed on, but come to find out it is a variation of "John" which is Scott's dad's name and it means "gift from God" which we know Evan is. "Edward" is a family middle name, so we have always known we would name our son with that middle name.
We couldn't be happier with the names we've chosen. They are perfect!
Do not know if I told you this but at the time I was expecting young Joe, the tradition in Italian families was to name the first male grandchid after the grandpa. Joe wanted our first boy named after him and that was his dad's name and my dad's name too. So, we took care of Joe and both sets of grand dads, Jim's name on the other hand was more my doing. Growing up there was a priest who was a friend of the family and his name was James Patrick and I always liked the name. So, when the second baby came along that was the name chosen. When my dad heard his name all he said was, " it sounds Irish." As a side note if we ever had a girl her name was going to be Julie Marie.
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