Family history changed our fav name

Keri Marie · October 2013

I do a lot of family history and recently found out the first person with DH's last name (in the 1100's) was named Margaret. We are now planning Margaret for our next DD (it's also his grandma's name)

What make's you fall in love with a name?

emnoahmom · October 2013

That's along the lines with how we chose Emma. My grandmother has a written history of her family beginning with Emma and Joseph. Joseph had been used a lot since but Emma only twice so we decided to use it.

allardr · October 2013

I agree with above, I'm not into honoring way off people. If I were to purposely use a family name there is a short list that I'd even consider. Needs to be someone I knew and preferably passed away. I don't really like to "honor" still living people. There are onlly two we considered--my great-great grandmother Ruth and my great aunt Margaret but DH doesn't like either. Which was fine. I'm not set on family names.

Helenahhandbasket · October 2013

That's awesome that you can track your fam back that far! We can only go back to the late 1800s for both sides of my family -- southern Italian record keeping wasn't too reliable back then-- go figure.

Margaret is one of our top contenders for a future DD as well-- so double awesome.

Scarlett&Gatsby · October 2013

Before we got married I fell in love with one of DH's family names because the stories about the woman connected to it were awesome (she was a Sicilian immigrant whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack when he was very young; she had three or four children she raised by herself and took care of by running a fruit stand. Because she was a single woman, Irish boys/men used to pick on her and steal her fruit, so one day she got fed up and went into their favorite bar with a baseball bat and threatened them. After that, they left her alone. With the fruit stand money, she was eventually able to move her family out of...Five Points, I think? A slum, anyway, and into a decent neighborhood. Her name was Michelina, which might be a bit too Italian for us to pull off, though...). Finding out names I already liked are family names makes me like them more, too. DH's dad has been doing a lot of family research lately and found out Clementine and Delaney are both old family names. I already liked the names, but recognizing that Clementine is a little weird (and Delaney slants a tad trendy) to people, the fact that we can say "it's a family name" is appealing, even if I don't know anything about the people with those names.

NerdyLucy · October 2013

That's an awesome story. ^^^

NerdyLucy · October 2013

Keri Marie said:

What make's you fall in love with a name?

It's a combination of things for me.

I generally have to like the way it sounds, which seems pretty obvious.

It has to have a meaning that I love, or am at least okay with. Names like Mallory and Claudia I love in terms of sound, but the meanings kill them for me. Some people don't care about that kind of thing, but I do. To me, it's an integral part of their identity.

I used to not care for family names, but now every first-middle name combo on my shortlist has a family name of sorts (Julia, Margaret, Daisy, Lucille, Judith/Jude, Allen, Joseph, Stephan).

Some of these family members are dead, some are alive, but they're all someone we've met (his on his side, mine on my side). The farthest I've gone back for a family name was Julia, my great-great grandma, and she was alive until I was in 3rd grade.

Most of these family names are from my side. I'd like to collect more from his side, but he doesn't seem to be a fan of too many.

ETA: If it's NOT a family name (or even if it is), it's a bonus if it has some sort of historical connection that we find important.

Helenahhandbasket · October 2013

Scarlett&Gatsby said:

Before we got married I fell in love with one of DH's family names because the stories about the woman connected to it were awesome (she was a Sicilian immigrant whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack when he was very young; she had three or four children she raised by herself and took care of by running a fruit stand. Because she was a single woman, Irish boys/men used to pick on her and steal her fruit, so one day she got fed up and went into their favorite bar with a baseball bat and threatened them. After that, they left her alone. With the fruit stand money, she was eventually able to move her family out of...Five Points, I think? A slum, anyway, and into a decent neighborhood. Her name was Michelina, which might be a bit too Italian for us to pull off, though...). Finding out names I already liked are family names makes me like them more, too. DH's dad has been doing a lot of family research lately and found out Clementine and Delaney are both old family names. I already liked the names, but recognizing that Clementine is a little weird (and Delaney slants a tad trendy) to people, the fact that we can say "it's a family name" is appealing, even if I don't know anything about the people with those names.

Michelina is gorgeous-- I *might* pitch that to H.

Scarlett&Gatsby · October 2013

Helenahhandbasket said:

Scarlett&Gatsby said:

Before we got married I fell in love with one of DH's family names because the stories about the woman connected to it were awesome (she was a Sicilian immigrant whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack when he was very young; she had three or four children she raised by herself and took care of by running a fruit stand. Because she was a single woman, Irish boys/men used to pick on her and steal her fruit, so one day she got fed up and went into their favorite bar with a baseball bat and threatened them. After that, they left her alone. With the fruit stand money, she was eventually able to move her family out of...Five Points, I think? A slum, anyway, and into a decent neighborhood. Her name was Michelina, which might be a bit too Italian for us to pull off, though...). Finding out names I already liked are family names makes me like them more, too. DH's dad has been doing a lot of family research lately and found out Clementine and Delaney are both old family names. I already liked the names, but recognizing that Clementine is a little weird (and Delaney slants a tad trendy) to people, the fact that we can say "it's a family name" is appealing, even if I don't know anything about the people with those names.

Michelina is gorgeous-- I *might* pitch that to H.

You should! I just feel like my totally English/Swedish genes have watered down our ability to use it. DH is mostly German, but he still looks pretty Italian. Our girls don't so much. Michelina's husband was named Rosario, which I also love.

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