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Thank goodness I wasn’t {but almost was} named…

Meet Jed. roomie #4. Boyfriend of Leah. Quasi-boyfriend to Chrissy and I. All around awesome. He loves WL Weller’s bourbon, and long walks on the beach.

Here he is in his natural habitat. The wild dancing wedding guy extraordinaire.

Ok, so that was completely irrelevant except now when I say Jed, you know who I am talking about. Soooo Leah, Jed, Sadie Belle and I, were sitting around watching the Bachelor Pad discussing weather or not Elizabeth looked better blonde or brunette, and how awkward it was when Tenley crawled in Kipton’s bed and got denied, when the topic of names came up. I found out that a sorority sister of mine is naming her baby one of my baby girl names I have had picked out! Hmph. So sad. *le sigh* Oh well, she beat me to the alter, and she beat me getting knocked up, so I guess she gets first dibs on her baby’s name. Ha!

To make matters worse, her baby is going to be SO FREAKING CUTE because the name that shall not be named, goes perfectly with her last name, and she really is going to be the cutest little girl ever. I can just see little BLANK BLANK being captain of her cheerleading team, and she will definitely be the girl that all the girls want to be friends with and that all the guys want to kiss!

So this started us thinking, what is in a name? You want to pick out cute names for your kids duh, but what if your parents name you something completely unfortunate?? I have always been happy with my first name. Allison, has a nice ring to it. Common, yes, but hey it works for me. I think the reason I am so happy with my name, is because I know the other choices that were discussed, and frankly, I am SO glad my mom stood up to pushy relatives, and named me what she wanted to name me!

So for your enjoyment, here are some things I was almost named:

1. Gabriella. Ok not bad, I could have been a cute little Gabby, but I just don’t feel like a Gabby. But this is definitely the number two choice after Allison. Gabby would have worked.

2. Gertrude. I kid you not. There were those who tried to get my mother to name me Gertrude. Nicknames would have included Gerty, or Trudy. I can just see it now, “Hello Dr. Johnson, is Gerty home, I would like to take her on a date.” Sweet heavens this would have made for one hell of a high school experience.

and #3. If I was a boy, my father wanted to name me…

Spider. Spyder??!! I don’t know how he would have spelled it but what the heck?? I can only hope that he had spent a little too long around the wooden spool table you know what I am saying. I kid. Anyways I am sure he was just messing with my mom, but the ridiculous thing is this was discussed. My dad has always loved Spider Man… so you draw your own conclusions there.

So what were you almost named? I would loooove to here some other tragic choices that your parents had picked out for you. Or maybe I am the only one with whack parents who wanted to name their child after a teenage superhero who was bitten by a radioactive spider?

  1. katmcd says:

    I was either Kathleen (actual name) or Stephen. Thankfully, I was a boy because a few weeks after I was born a Stephen (age 6 months) moved in and I feel a childhood with two boys the same name, same age would have gotten old fast.

  2. Annamarie says:

    Well I was supposed to be AnnaLisa, which isn't too bad, I actually would have preferred it over Annamarie, but oh well. Then they were planning on naming my brother AnnaLisa because they wanted another girl. HAH! They had no idea what to name him once they found out he was a boy!

  3. kristen says:

    Check this Spyder,

    Mrs. Carol wanted to name little ole me Wendy. My daddy defended my honor by refusing to let me be named after a fast food chain! Thanks Daddy!

    I have had the same baby girl name picked out since I was 7. I could care less who knows because Im naming her that no matter what! Its Connelly Ann!! Dont you just love it! So southern belle!!

  4. Kerr says:

    The only argument about my name was fought between the two grandmothers. My name is Kerr Ann. Kerr comes from my mom's side and Ann from my Dad's. So it was the great debate if I was going to be Kerr Ann or Ann Kerr. I have found that having an unusual name in a pain in the @$$! No one can say it, spell it, understand it, and if I am not in front of them ppl look at the name think I am a boy. It's just annoying.

  5. I was almost named Marina, because my mom loves the ocean, but my dad nixed it. My brother was almost named Rolland (thank god they picked Maxwell instead)! The only name my parents could agree on was Ariane. So, voila, here I am!

  6. melissa says:

    My parents were back and forth between Melissa and Megan. They {obviously} went with Melissa. I guess I would have been fine either way – I would have been Melissa C or Megan C my whole life regardless! And one of my younger cousins ended up being Megan.

    If I was a boy, I was going to be Jordan. That was the boy name my parents picked and by the time baby 3 arrived they had decided it would be Jordan whether it was a boy or a girl. Baby 3 ended up being my brother, so they got to use it for a boy after all.

  7. Molly says:

    Polly. Yep, you read that right. My grandparents' best friends were Doc and Polly McCloud. My dad loved Polly so much he wanted to name me after her. Mom refused. Nurse came up with Molly and all was great! Until she called my grandmother who went nuts because I was now named after "the Unsinkable" Molly Brown – "you know the big, fat red head" – her words, not mine. Still not really that big of a deal until Titanic came out and the Unsinkable Molly Brown was all over it. Seriously, each person that year that asked me about being "Unsinkable" acted like they were the first one to come up with that. It was about all my little 7th grade nerves could take! Now I'm married and I love my new name, but I will always love being Molly Brown too 🙂

  8. Natalie says:

    My dad wanted to name me Ashley Elizabeth and my mom wanted to name me Natalie Cay… neither one would compromise.

    So, um yeah… my mom just waited until my dad left to go check on something at work and filled out the paperwork to name me Natalie. Love it! It makes me laugh every time I think about it. 🙂

  9. My mom liked the name Anastasia…no idea where she pulled that one from! I'm so not an Anastasia!

    As for Bachelor Pad…I like Elizabeth better as a brunette and I felt SO awkward for Kiptyn and Tenley!

  10. Ha this is funny! I like it! Our friends who we used to live with STOLE our baby name and pretended like we never told them it. But same applies she got knocked up first so whatever our baby will actually be way cuter.

    Anyhoo moving on.. I was always a Jennifer but I had a friend who when I first met them swore my name was Brooke which I actually love so I'd take Brooke. If I was a boy I was a Brian.

  11. Amber says:

    Spyder? That's crazy! I haven't asked my mom what other names she would have come up with for me. You've got me thinking now!

  12. Dree says:

    That's a great question! I was always going to have an Irish name, and it was between Deirdre and two other very hard to pronounce names. The first my mother was convinced sounded like a brazier bra, so she refused. The second is very pretty but quite common in Ireland, so ending up with Deirdre was fine by me!

    My mom always says that she wishes she named my sister and me matchy names, but luckily I was well and named before she had my little sister!

  13. Laura says:

    hahahaha.. sooo funny! Spyder? Spider?? interesting.. 🙂 WHO IS THIS SISTER OF OURS!?!?! and I hope it's not one of my names! haha. We've already discussed and our will be swedish names, but that go well in English.. not like Joakim (haha).. I think I was going to either be a Lindsay, Laura, lisa (which is my sisters name) and… actually i can't remember the other.. I'll have to ask my mom 🙂 haha

  14. Brittany says:

    Spyder?! That's crazy haha. I was almost Danielle until my dad and grandfather protested and decided on Brittany. Which is fine but there are WAY too many Brittany's! I know about 10 of them but only 1 Danielle.

  15. Jillian says:

    You can still use the name!! I know two girls who are best friends and they named their children the exact same name!! So it can be done!

  16. My last name is Brown. Landis is a family name. I was almost named Landis. My name would have said Land Is Brown. oh the torture that could have brought on.

  17. Oh my lord, you would have definitely been the only Spyder in your class. I always hated my name (Lauren Elizabeth) because I was one of FIVE Lauren's in my class and TWO of them were Lauren Elizabeth's! So I want unique names for my kids, I ADORE Sawyer for a boy and Whitley (my mom's maiden name) or Kinley for a girl.

  18. Allison is definitely a great name, I love names starting with the letter 'A'. But I like Gabby too… although my college roommate and I named her dog Gabby bc she wouldn't stop barking, ever! I think I may have you beat though~ my dad wanted to name me Frances, a family name, but go by Fanny…. yes, Fanny!! I am so thankful my mom gave that a big giant Veto… I am more than happy with Emily 🙂

  19. Meredith says:

    Just stumbled across your blog and I'm a reader now. Actually, my going to be 91 in…..7 days…Grandmother's name is: Gertrude, yes, I sometimes call her Trudy as a nickname, I don't know, we've always had a fun relationship and she doesn't care. What make it even worse, her first name is Ruby, Ruby Gertrude, could you imagine? I think it's a generation or two past using that name though.

    http://www.meredithlthompson.blogspot.com

  20. Morgan says:

    I was going to be Morgan Patrick or Patrick Morgan if I were a boy. I have 2 older brothers, so my rents figured I'd come out a boy. Surprise, surprise. Morgan Diane popped out.

    Also, my husband is Nathan Patrick. Patrick runs in both of our families. But he was going to be named Beau. Cute name for some boys…but not my Nate Dawg. Glad his fam chose Nathan.

  21. Morgan says:

    Oh, and I have a friend named Evelyn. Which sounds really old…but she is the coolest person you would meet. And a girl in my sorority was Marjorie. Cool girl, tough name.

  22. Jill says:

    If I were a boy, I'd have been named Joshua. How original for 1983! I don't know the other girl names my mom considered, but she named me something very unique and now I go by my middle name (Jill). I like Jill, and my first name doesn't feel like me at all. Note to self and bloggies out there: name your kid what you intend to call it! hehe

  23. Whitney says:

    Hehe…

    My mom was thinking of naming be Gabriella too. She was also thinking of April. I can't remember any of the others. My dad like the name Henrietta. I'm not sure if he was joking about it or not!

  24. Spider and Gertrude – HAHAHAHA! Your parents are crazy! Thank goodness they went the "Allison" route. If I was a boy, I would have been Christopher or Brandon. In other news, I may or may not have had a Microsoft Word document full of possible girl and boy baby names saved on my computer for years. As in….way before I was even engaged or married. Tehe. One day when I'm pregnant, my hubby is going to bring up the subject of possible baby names and I'll just whip out my handy dandy list! 🙂 It must be the teacher in me….

  25. Andrea says:

    Oh my gosh, this post stresses me out! I am preggers and stressing to come up with the perfect name! Talk about anxiety! I was almost named Christina, which I totally don't look like a Christina so I'm glad that went out the door. Where did your parents come up with Spider??? It could have been worse, didn't someone, like Gwyneth Paltrow name her kid Apple.. bless it's little heart! Have a great day girl! ~Andrea
    http://www.andreasattic-andrea.blogspot.com

  26. I'm super curious to hear what name your sorority sister beat you to, I have a name though just like this that I rarely share.

    My dear Mother thought about naming me Sophia and dubbing me Sophie. Sophie I am not. I love being a Katie, common as it can be.

    Had I been a boy I would have been… Peter. Pete would have been my name because it's my paternal grandpa name. I can't stand this name. Thank the Lord I'm Katie.

    Names can really make or break a kid from the start. ie. My Mom once dated a guy named Richard Head. Her brothers wouldn't let her live it down. On the bright side? Dick is not my Dad.

  27. Paige says:

    Spyder?! Ahh, that is hilarious. I know a guy named "Snapper" – weird right! My first name is Paigeleana (Said kind of like Thumblina the story book character), it truly is hideous. People always ooh and ah over my name but I know deep down they are wondering what kind of drugs my lovely Mama was on!

    Someone from my same small town named their daughter Charli Beth too. I was so very ticked off and even today I heard a teacher ask what this "Charli Beth" looked like because her niece had that named too. I was red in the face! haha. I am so anxious to hear what "Blank blank" is going to be named! I love baby names!

  28. Mighty Burns says:

    My family is a big. 'ol. Irish. Catholic. family. All our names are from the good book, but for some reason when they got to number five my dad wanted to branch off and name me Amy. Which is fine. But like you, I just dont feel like an Amy. After being referred to as "Oh Doctor she is beautiful, baby girl Shaffo" for a few days my mom won and named me Bridgette.

  29. Cassie says:

    Haha, I would say you definitely lucked out! I have no idea if my parents went with anything other than Cassie (Cassandra). If so, they never told me!

  30. Sarah says:

    Starlett Lashae' (can you say stripper name)

    or Damian Johnson (boy)

    How awful??

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