October 16, 2013

Do You like Your Name? How Did You Get Your Name?

Do you know the story of how or why you received your first name? I never was fond of my first name, Paulette.

My parents were 40, and 42 years old when I was born, I had a brother that was 16 and a sister that was 14 at the time of my birth. To say I was a surprise would be an understatement, but I was treasured and loved by my family. I had a fantastic childhood and my adult life has been wonderful.

Here, I am with my brother and sister celebrating my first Christmas.
I was two months old.
When my sister was born the doctor asked my parents what they were naming her, they didn't have any names in mind. The doctor looked at my sisters hands and said, with these long slender fingers, she would make an excellent piano player, you should name her after Saint Cecilia the patron saint of music. So I have a sister name Cecile.

Unfortunately, I don't know the story of my brothers naming. We don't have any other family members that had the name Donald. How I wish I would have asked my parents and my brother before they left this world.

One afternoon my father was painting our house near the living room windows, the windows were open, and he could see and hear the television. As my father was painting he remarked how beautiful the actress was on the television, my mother replied that it was Paulette Goddard. My mom was pregnant with me at this time. My father said if it's a girl let's name her Paulette, and that is how I received my name.

My sister was named because she had long slender fingers, great for piano playing, can't read a note of music or play a piano.

The French name, Paulette, means small, or little. I am of Polish and Irish descent, and was always tall for my age, growing to the height of six feet. 

When I was in grade school, I wished that my name was Sandra with the nickname Sandy. 

How did you get your name? Have you ever wished you had a different name? What name would you have liked?
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8 comments:

  1. I was named after my other's best Friend and my dad gave me my middle name from someone he knew. No family names or saints or even a famous actress.

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  2. Named after a song. My dad wanted to name me Angelica. Angelic I have never been! Linda

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  3. I was named after Princess Margaret and my sister after Princess Anne .....UGH

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  4. I was named after Sonya in "war and peace". What an intellectual mummy I have! Apparently it was always going to be something Russian, Natasha or the like. Very funny, as I ended up studying Russian at uni!

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  5. Loved hearing that story!! My mom hated her name..Dorothy Jeanne and went to school thinking her name was Jean and when they called her Dorothy she was like "who is that"? I always thought it was weird my Dad's family called her Dorothy and everyone in our home town called her Jean. She wanted none of that for my brother and i...short names with no nick names she said. So there is how Ann came to be, Ann Elizabeth for my Dads mom.

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  7. My mother got my name from the book Little Women. I remember when my mom was pregnant with my little sister she let me and my five sisters pick her name out. My sisters and mom were big fans of a soap opera maybe it was As the World Turns. My sisters absolutely loved the name Rachel. I guess mom and dad got tired of picking out girls names after having 7. The picture of you above is adorable. It was hard to see that the baby in the picture wasn't a little porcelain doll. :)

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