We recently did a post where we asked people to share the unusual backstory of how they or someone they know got their name, and they DELIVERED some wild stories.
People were ESPECIALLY amused by this one:
Well, the comments to that post absolutely blew up with hundreds more hilarious, questionable, and sometimes heartwarming baby naming stories. Here are the very best:
1. "I had a family friend whose dad wanted a boy and insisted that the next child be named after him. When it turned out to be a girl, he didn't even use a feminine version. She was just a girl named George. By the time I knew her, she had a great sense of humor about it."
2. "My friend recently told me that his grandmother saw a really pretty name on a flyer and told his parents how much she liked it. The parents agreed and ended up giving him the name. It was a flyer for a missing child."
3. "My oldest three children are named after the X-Men. Logan for Wolverine, Storm-Aurora for Storm, and Rogue. They all have the same father who was X-Men obsessed and I really didn't have any ideas."
4. "Everyone asks my brother if our parents are fans of Saved By The Bell because his name is Zach Morris but they didn't even know that show until after they named him!"
5. "My sister was named after my imaginary friend. She was going to be named Grace, but as my mom’s pregnancy progressed, it became clear that was not going to fit. So I had an imaginary friend named Kathleen, and my mom liked it, and named my sister that. Basically, my imaginary friend became my real life-long friend. ❤️"
6. "A coworker LOVED He-Man and wanted to their baby to have a name from the He-Man universe. The wife said absolutely not. He suggested Marlena. The wife said it was a pretty name, so that's what they went with. Guess what He-Man's mother's name is? Marlena. His wife was not happy when she found out later."
7. "My mother announced she and my father (who had been married for only two years) were expecting a baby. My asshole grandmother said it was a dumb idea and that having a kid wasn’t something to do as a lark. Hence, my middle name is Lark. They were married 37 years before she died so it all worked out."
8. "My name is Carly Dale. I'm named after cars and race car driver Dale Earnhardt."
9. "My name is Jagoda, which means blueberry in Polish. My parents came up with this name after the nurse who brought me to them after I was born dressed in a knitted purple hat. I also had huge, dark blue eyes so they called me a Blueberry (and I love it)."
10. "My sister's baby names are currently the talk of the family. She and her husband met at college in a musical performance program, so they are naming their children based on musicals. Their first daughter is named Truly, from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Unusual, but a pretty cute name once we got used to it. Her second daughter...sigh. She's currently two months old and everyone is struggling to come up with a nickname that my sister will accept. Her name is Edelweiss, from The Sound of Music."
11. "I named my son Braddock after watching the dog show and seeing a dog named Braddock. I just loved the name and it stuck. My husband hates it when I tell that story."
12. "I knew a girl named Taryn, she was named after one of Freddy Kruger’s victims in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Frankly, I thought it was kind of cool."
13. "I went to high school with a girl named Nikki Nicole. Her dad gave the middle name not knowing Nikki was short for Nicole."
14. "My dad really enjoyed the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit and thought that Jessica Rabbit was sexy, so here I am named after an animated character with big boobs."
15. "My brother's middle name is E. My mom didn’t realize she had to spell out the full name, which was supposed to be Edward. So she just put E. on the birth certificate."
16. "My former history professor was named Wendy because her mother drove past a Wendy’s billboard when she was pregnant."
17. "My name was supposed to be Samantha but my shit dad was in jail and happened to see a character named Cecily on All My Children. He called my mom as soon as he could and told her that's what he wanted to name me. My mom liked it but didn't know how to spell it (and never bothered to look it up) so she added an extra 'e', making my name is Ceciley."
18. "My parents were going to name me Summer but I was born five days before Christmas so they named me Cortney."
19. "When I was pregnant with my daughter my 1-year-old son was just learning to speak. He loved picking daisies in the garden and would present them to me saying ‘daisy.’ I thought it’d be cute if he could say his sister’s name. Daisy is now 14 and I still love her name and how she got it!"
20. "When I was pregnant with my son, my husband and I were watching Sleeping Beauty with our 3-year-old daughter. Prince Philip's horse's name is Samson, and I commented that I liked the name, it was a good, strong, solid name. My husband got all excited and started talking about Samson as a name for our son. I was like, "I was talking about for a horse..." Samson is now 7 years old. We joke that when he's older he's not allowed to date anyone named Delilah."
21. "My name is Marena, after my grandmother Rena. My grandmother was born at home with the assistance of a midwife. After my grandmother was born, the midwife was filling our the paperwork to get a birth certificate. My great-grandmother wanted to name her Irene, but the midwife put down Rena. We have no idea why."
22. "My boyfriend, Gage, was named after the little boy that gets hit by a truck in the book/movie, Pet Sematary. Kinda weird, kinda cool."
23. "I had a relative who named his daughter Diana. He and his wife split, he got remarried, and had another kid. Couldn’t think of a name so for the first three years of her life, her legal name was 'Baby Girl.' Then he finally thought of a name: Diana. She grew up and was so pissed she decided to keep 'Baby Girl.' She’s in her 40s now and still goes by BG. It’s definitely better than Diana 2."
24. "My parents wanted an old, unique name for me, so where do you go in the nineties to find those? Graveyards. They picked a name from an old gravestone, made no changes at all, first and middle name, and gave it to me. That grave is still there and they have taken me to see it before. So I am named after some random dead lady."
25. "I recently found out my parents chose the initials for my brother and me from a license plate. We're both AEH because of a piece of government issued metal."
26. "My grandmother had a dog that escaped with a lead on and hung himself. I was named after him."
27. "My parents hadn't been able to come up with a name for me when my dad found a 'Shannon' sticker on the bottom of his boot. He peeled it off and told my Mom he had the perfect name!"
28. "My mom suggested the name Kelly but my dad was only half-paying attention and thought she said Callie. They both liked Callie, though, so my name came from a typical guy not listening."
29. "My dad found my name in a fairly popular book series based off a Dungeons & Dragons game. My mom liked it and now I'm named after an elvish princess."
30. "The two names my mom was deciding between were Charlotte and Samantha. She claims the second she saw me she knew neither name was right, and named me Miranda instead. The most entertaining part of this is that I was born in the 80s, long before Sex and The City was a thing."
31. "My mom stole my name. She was pregnant at the same time as one of her coworkers and both me and the coworker's baby were due around the same time. My mom and dad were convinced that I was going to be a boy so they only ever talked about boy names. She says that even the doctor said I would be a boy based on the sonogram. Meanwhile, the coworker was going to have a girl and told everyone who asked what she was going to name her. Well, guess who was born first and guess what name was the only name that came to my mom's mind when she gave birth and discovered that I was in fact a girl?"
"The coworker ended up changing the name of her daughter when she gave birth a week later, after she heard my mom had already named me. My mom left that job not long after I was born so I never really heard anything else about the coworker but if I were her, I would’ve been furious. Thirty years later, my mom still doesn’t get why the coworker changed her baby’s name, according to my mom my name would’ve been the same if I was born second, but who knows. I think it’s just her guilty conscious speaking 🤣. Whatever helps you sleep at night mom!"
32. "There were twins in my high school class named Sugar Sparks and Spice Sparks."
33. "My friend was named after the doctor that performed his mom’s boob job!"
34. "My dad was obsessed with the Irish band Clannad and named me after the singer Máire Brennan. Imagine having the name Máire (pronounced like Moira) in the US. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called 'Mare'…like a female horse."
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Correction: A submission was removed that didn't meet our editorial standards.