I was going to be Jane, but after I was born my mother switched to Antonia, after a friend of hers. Neither name fits with the general Irish-Catholic theme that my 6 siblings names fall into. My middle name is my mother's first name, Ruth. 6 daughters and I'm the 3rd in line and somehow I get stuck with her name. Not sure why. It always made me feel singled out.

Ironically, I am the most like her, at least in health matters of the 7 of her children.

My father's middle name was Graham. I decided that if I ever needed a stage name, pen name, or alias, I would go by Jennifer Graham. Huh. Well, I guess I just blew the alias part.

ION, given that she parked her car sideways, how did Prince know that meant it wouldn't last?

I was also partly named for two aunts (one for my first name and one for my middle name, Elizabeth). If I'd been a boy I would have been named Jesse. My sister has the same first and middle names as our mother's grandmother, who emigrated from Nova Scotia to Boston to work as a nurse, I suspect during the flu pandemic of 1918 (the timing is right). Sister was called Jennie as a child, which was great-grandmother's nickname. For my brother, my mother went deeply genealogical and named him Nathaniel (I don't know of any direct ancestor, though there was a Nathaniel Mother's Maiden Name) Spooner (for our New Bedford whaling captain ancestor).

Casper is Evelyn Claire, Evelyn for mr. flea's grandmother (I managed to quash Eugenia, for his grandfather) and that also happens to be the name of my best friend from college (though she goes by Lyn.) Claire we just liked. Also there was a really cool girl with an asymmetrical haircut who liked the B-52s at my middle school named Claire, although I didn't know her or anything. Dillo is Peter Hawkins, and some of you may recall the long discussions that brought us there. Peter we just liked - Peter Jennings, Peter Wimsey - and it's a "normal" name that is actually relatively uncommon right now. Hawkins was my grandfather's middle name, his mother's maiden name. Since I got into family history I've learned that my great-great-grandfather Hawkins was the judge in charge of the orphan's court in Victorian Pittsburgh, and he has a kind face. So that's good.

Anyone else have your pen/stage/ alias name picked out, or is that my own little oddity? I mean, aside from those of you who have actual pen or stage names. Or, um, aliases.

I was born in Argentina, and the hospital wanted to shave my head (sanitary reasons, is what I'm told) and pierce my ears (cultural norms); they, too, were overruled. My mother - refined but mighty.

Huh! And did they get exemption from the naming rules by not being Argentine? I know there's a strict set of names you can give babies there, because a guy I know comes from a crazy Anglophile Argentine family and they were psyched he was born up here so they could give him an English name. His sister is officially Ana but always called Ann in the family.

I always thought that if I needed a stage name, I'd keep the first name and go with my paternal grandmother's maiden name, Dunston. Easy to pronounce, yet still somewhat unusual.

Anyone else have your pen/stage/ alias name picked out, or is that my own little oddity? I mean, aside from those of you who have actual pen or stage names. Or, um, aliases.

When I was in high school, I wanted to have a pen name that would get me shelved near Christopher Pike, since I not only loved him but also had a theory that he was secretly Indian.

I drafted my obituary when I was a freshman in high school, and my plan was to die with the last name Winter. I did not go into great detail about any actual Husband, but I was firm about the name.

I was going to be called Louise (maybe after my grandfather Louis?) My Brother, who was in grade 2 at the time, was in love with a girl named Sue. He told my parents that if they didn't name me Sue, he would call me "Shut-up" for the rest of my life. My brother always gets his way.