When we were deciding on names for my two sons -- now aged 9 and 11 yrs old -- I was adamant about using only family names for both the first and middle names. My husband and I knew both times that we were having boys. One name from my father's side that I loved but my husband hated was Alden...it went back many generations. That last one to have it was my great Uncle -- he went by Bud -- LOVE it!!
I read "Beyond Jennifer and Jason" when deciding which family names to use. I wanted names that had positive or no connotations. I did not want to saddle my sons with names that gave them a strike before anyone even met them. I mean, really, some names DO conjure up definite images!
For my oldest son, we named him Carl William...turned out both hubby and I's deceased paternal grandfathers' middle names were Carl! I liked the fact that you could not make a nick name out of it either (e.g. Richard becomes Dick!!!). Ironically, I often call Carl "Carlos" -- and I don't even speak Spanish! Go figure!! William was hubby's deceased paternal grandfather's first name and it was also in my family tree somewhere. There are two other Carl's in his middle school.
Now my second son's name was trickier. We decided to name him after both our dads -- my dad is Robert but my father in law's first name is Clarence which does not exactly conjure up the most positive image! So we used his middle name for Robert's middle name: Charles. I have kept Robert's name as Robert but hubby tries to make him change it to Rob which Robert refuses to do -- he likes being Robert. In his 4th grade class there is another Robert who also only goes by Robert, but in the whole school, there is only one other Robert and he goes by Robbie.
My parents named me (oldest) and my five sisters with names that all began with the letter C!
Cecilia (nickname Cele)
Catherine (Cathy)
Carolyn (Cari)
Constance (Connie)
Claire (Claire)
Christiane (Chris)
I have a friend whose hubby is Todd and all of Todd's five siblings have names that start with T...
