Joe & Kendra 16: Praise - ing Their Brooklyn All the Day Long!

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 hours ago, CanadianMamam said:

He did. And Bobby Kennedy had two daughters named Mary, Mary Kerry and Mary Courtney and just called by their middle names, which is an Irish Catholic thing (the other two daughters were named after family members).

 

In my genealogy stuff it's infuriating whole lines of people with eleventy kids and all have the same first name, different middles.  I love the folk lore behind it, the FU to the angel of death but damn, it's hard to keep track of who is whom.  

[libgirl2]

4 hours ago, CanadianMamam said:

He did. And Bobby Kennedy had two daughters named Mary, Mary Kerry and Mary Courtney and just called by their middle names, which is an Irish Catholic thing (the other two daughters were named after family members).

 

Hispanic Catholics too. My aunt had two daughters with the first name Mari (the other daughter had it as a second name) a and two sons with Manuel as a middle name and one with it as his first. Everyone had nicknames. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

I wouldn’t call Jessa trendy. Jessica, yes, but not Jessa. My kids are 34 and 30, so in the same age range as the oldest Duggars, and I knew no little Jessa, Jana or Jinger. Maybe these were more Southern names? 

I'm in my 50s and went to school with a Jana and a Janna.  

[SorenaJ]

2 hours ago, bal maiden said:

Why do these discussions about 'my mum's sister-in-law once knew a kid called X' always end up sounding a little ...racist? ...classist? 

 

 

Ugh. 

Because people recognise that some names might be disadvantageous for a child, and feel it is a shame that a child was given such a name. 

[Jana814]

3 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I'm in my 50s and went to school with a Jana and a Janna.  

I am a Jana!!  I have only met a few people with my name. My sister has an unusual first name (Irina) it’s of Russian origin. My mother first heard the name during the 1980 Winter Olympics. In 2014 the woman who lit the Olympic torch was named Irina. My sister texted my mother & ask if she was named for this person & she was. 

[Whipple]

2 hours ago, bal maiden said:

Why do these discussions about 'my mum's sister-in-law once knew a kid called X' always end up sounding a little ...racist? ...classist? 

 

 

Ugh. 

I have been fascinated by names my whole life and I think it was because I was named by teenaged parents who named me after their favorite star. In my field I don’t run into a lot of people with my name because a lot of my colleagues my age have “classy” names like Katherine or Jacqueline. If I had a child as a teen, I would have named a daughter Angel, Brandi,  or Heather. Those were the names I liked.  I shutter to think! Heather is not too bad but Angel and Brandi? If I was a teen now in the same social class I was then, I might have gone with Nevaeh. Heaven spelled backwards is cute. Now when I work with a little one named Goddess, Precious, or A’Miracle, I smile because their name tells me they are very much loved.

Maybe someday it won’t matter on a job application whether one has an upper-class literary name or not. 

[CTRLZero]

1 hour ago, Jana814 said:

My sister has an unusual first name (Irina) it’s of Russian origin. My mother first heard the name during the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Our daughter was named after an athlete from the 1984 Winter Olympics!  The name was also that of my childhood friend, but my husband agreed to it based on hearing it broadcast on tv.  Her name is not totally unusual, but we’ve only met a couple of others over the years.  
I like the name Irina.  In the mid-1980s, I traveled to Russia and met a pen pal with that name.  It was quite the adventure for me. 

[Mrs. Kravitz]

1 hour ago, Whipple said:

I have been fascinated by names my whole life and I think it was because I was named by teenaged parents who named me after their favorite star. In my field I don’t run into a lot of people with my name because a lot of my colleagues my age have “classy” names like Katherine or Jacqueline. If I had a child as a teen, I would have named a daughter Angel, Brandi,  or Heather. Those were the names I liked.  I shutter to think! Heather is not too bad but Angel and Brandi? If I was a teen now in the same social class I was then, I might have gone with Nevaeh. Heaven spelled backwards is cute. Now when I work with a little one named Goddess, Precious, or A’Miracle, I smile because their name tells me they are very much loved.

Maybe someday it won’t matter on a job application whether one has an upper-class literary name or not. 

I also have a fascination with names. I ultimately don't care what other people name their kids as long as it's not harmful, but I'm always fascinated on their reasoning on why they named them. The transition of what we consider a feminine name vs a masculine name is interesting too. Lindsay, Ashley, Evelyn, Marion, Beverly, etc, all started out as masculine names. 

I always liked Nevaeh, too. We have several Mi'Angel's (with various spellings) in our program, and I always think that name is so sweet. 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Mrs. Kravitz
Typos

[CanadianMamam]

2 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

In my genealogy stuff it's infuriating whole lines of people with eleventy kids and all have the same first name, different middles.  I love the folk lore behind it, the FU to the angel of death but damn, it's hard to keep track of who is whom.  

I have a great-great-great grandfather who was the third William his parents had. The first two died in infancy. They just kept going until they got one that lived. 

[Mama Mia]

2 hours ago, Whipple said:

I have been fascinated by names my whole life and I think it was because I was named by teenaged parents who named me after their favorite star. In my field I don’t run into a lot of people with my name because a lot of my colleagues my age have “classy” names like Katherine or Jacqueline. If I had a child as a teen, I would have named a daughter Angel, Brandi,  or Heather. Those were the names I liked.  I shutter to think! Heather is not too bad but Angel and Brandi? If I was a teen now in the same social class I was then, I might have gone with Nevaeh. Heaven spelled backwards is cute. Now when I work with a little one named Goddess, Precious, or A’Miracle, I smile because their name tells me they are very much loved.

Maybe someday it won’t matter on a job application whether one has an upper-class literary name or not. 

IME Heather is an incredibly common name. I’m in my 50’s and there were usually multiple Heather’s in each class. I don’t recall any Jacqueline’s. My kids, in their 30’s, also had Heather’s among their friends. 
Angel I see as a boys name, because it’s a common name for Latino boys. 

There is a huge amount of racial and class and regional variation regarding what names are “acceptable”. It’s fascinating. 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Mama Mia

[Jewels64]

I have always found names fascinating as well.  All my kids have family names.  My grandmother passed away when I was pregnant with my fourth kiddo.  Being Mrytle Marie didn't fit that 9lb baby boy.  We used her her maidan name, Lawson (admitting I have a kid with the same name as a fundy almost feels like a sin).  Which felt unique and like a strong name at the time.  He is amoungs the "son" generation.  In his friend group there is a Carson, Mason, and Harrison.  He graduates this year and there are so many "sons" in his class.

[Expectopatronus]

10 hours ago, bal maiden said:

Why do these discussions about 'my mum's sister-in-law once knew a kid called X' always end up sounding a little ...racist? ...classist? 

 

 

Ugh. 

I can’t speak for anyone else but the kids I taught were white and wealthy. All parents are capable of picking names or naming styles that are unique and might raise eyebrows. 

[Jasmar]

7 hours ago, Jana814 said:

I am a Jana!!  I have only met a few people with my name. My sister has an unusual first name (Irina) it’s of Russian origin. My mother first heard the name during the 1980 Winter Olympics. In 2014 the woman who lit the Olympic torch was named Irina. My sister texted my mother & ask if she was named for this person & she was. 

I have a daughter named Maia, after the Russian ice dancer Maia Usova. I always loved her name, and loved their skating.

[VeryNikeSeamstress]

10 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Hispanic Catholics too. My aunt had two daughters with the first name Mari (the other daughter had it as a second name) a and two sons with Manuel as a middle name and one with it as his first. Everyone had nicknames. 

In Quebec (Canada), it was fairly common for Francophone Catholics to have Marie or Joseph as their first names. I don't know if that's still the case, but I remember a kid in my elementary school in the 1980's telling me that.

[CuttySark]

I think it’s less common now than it was, especially for the generations following the quiet revolution.

I work with old (18th-19th century) census data sometimes and the name patterns are wild.

In my Nova Scotia data sets there are so, so many repeated names, even in families (daughters known as Old Mary, Mary and Young Mary, more than 80 Donald MacDonalds in Cape Breton alone, most of them married to Jessies, Margarets, and Sarahs...). It can make tracking down one particular family line or land grant very difficult 150 years after the fact.

I’ve really come to appreciate unique names since! ?

[Knight of Ni]

8 hours ago, Mrs. Kravitz said:

Lindsay, Ashley, Evelyn, Marion, Beverly, etc, all started out as masculine names. 

I went to school with a male Courtney. I know a few male Shannons and a male Leslie.

Are there any feminine names that have transitioned to masculine? There must be but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

[CuttySark]

The only ones that easily come to mind cross linguistic barriers. Michal and Noa are common girls’ names in Hebrew but become Michael and Noah / masc-coded in English.

(and that other Noah guy, of course. I guess that makes it more unisex from the start.)

Edited May 28, 2021 by CuttySark
So tired that I forgot ark-dude existed.

[Jana814]

The guy who did the bathrooms in our house is a man named Ashley. Very unusual in our area. 

[Mrs. Kravitz]

2 hours ago, VeryNikeSeamstress said:

In Quebec (Canada), it was fairly common for Francophone Catholics to have Marie or Joseph as their first names. I don't know if that's still the case, but I remember a kid in my elementary school in the 1980's telling me that.

My grandfather's ancestry was French Canadian, and all the girls and several of the guys were Marie Something or Something Joseph. Sometimes Something Josephte for girls if I'm lucky. This was the 1600-1700s.

1 hour ago, Knight of Ni said:

I went to school with a male Courtney. I know a few male Shannons and a male Leslie.

Are there any feminine names that have transitioned to masculine? There must be but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

I forgot about Courtney. I used to work with a male Courtney. He passed suddenly a few years ago, but he was on the younger side.

I can't think of any feminine to masculine name besides Marie in French, but that was more unisex, and I don't think it's common anymore. The typical shift is masculine to feminine.

[Iamtheway]

17 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Because they are. 

And speaking of awesome ancestral names, I had an ancestor who fought in the Civil War named Narcissus.

And did he also fight in the battle of Hogwarts? ??‍♂️ 

[AussieKrissy]

31 minutes ago, Iamtheway said:

And did he also fight in the battle of Hogwarts? ??‍♂️ 

Do you mean Narcissa Malfoy? 
Im drawing a blank at an actual narcissus but that could because all I can think of is narcissa. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

11 hours ago, Jana814 said:

The guy who did the bathrooms in our house is a man named Ashley. Very unusual in our area. 

Miss Emily was in love with Ashley Longworth, the handsome soldier that her Papa sent away...there has to be at least one other Walton's fan here that just smiled at that reference.

[Jana814]

2 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Miss Emily was in love with Ashley Longworth, the handsome soldier that her Papa sent away...there has to be at least one other Walton's fan here that just smiled at that reference.

I was thinking of that. I had wondered if our contractor was named after that character but he is way older then the series. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

7 minutes ago, Jana814 said:

I was thinking of that. I had wondered if our contractor was named after that character but he is way older then the series. 

Maybe he was named after the character in Gone with the Wind?

When my kids were growing up every classroom had at least two Ashleys.  My daughter's band of friends contained so many Ashelys at one point we had to use last names instead of just initials when referring to them.  

Unrelated but kind of sound alike one of my favorite girl names is Aisling - pronounced like Ash-ling.  It's one of the three names I wish I'd known about before I had my daughter as they'd have been in the mix for her.  As it is no more kiddos ....maybe I'll get fish just so I can use the names.  

[Jana814]

3 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Maybe he was named after the character in Gone with the Wind?

 

I think he was named after the character in Gone with the Wind.