My uncle wanted my parents to name me Maurice, from The Joker (The Steve Miller Band song, not the over done Batman character).
My narcissist father never had any choice for his first (and only) son other than to name me after himself.
“I know I’m a con-man of a used car salesman wannabe-Yuppie, but I think I’m so fucking special that I need to create a legacy with my name.”
Who the fuck thinks like that?
My mom’s top choice was Theophilus. Which is a little odd because we’re not Greek, and a would have been ironic since it means “love of god” and I ended up an atheist.
Not the answer to your question, but my family had a tradition of passing the same name down for generations (think this is pretty common?). Every other person just ended up going by a nickname, but it was still sooo confusing. Always getting calls for someone else and having to explain that, yeah my name is “abc”, but I go by “xyz”. I felt a little guilty, but we did not pass that tradition on to our kids.
If you haven’t read/seen it, the book/movie Holes has a main character who’s name is Stanley Yelnats III, after passing down the name from generation to generation.
“Yelnats” is “Stanley” backwards, Shia LaBeouf plays the main Stanley, and it’s a fantastic movie from 2003.
My parents bet on my and my sisters sex and whoever won got to choose. My father won both rounds or I would have been called Imre and my sister Inken
My older sister was supposed to get my name, but she was a she. It would have been fairly unique at her age. I came along five years later and got it at the height of its popularity, as a result there were three of us in my grade six class.
Funny enough Jesus cuz I wa almost born in a barn
Angelica and Olivia.
Little Dick.
pfffffftttt sorry I tried. Sigh.
I was too young to remember.
Jack
As an actual name by itself, not the typical John and then using Jack as a nickname for it.
… Jack is a nickname for John?
Traditionally yes, don’t ask me how.
The TV show Lost just took an a new meaning…
Susan
Jeremiah (was a bullfrog)
Not me, but for my older brother, my mom was considering the name Chad.
I wonder how that would have worked out, with the memes and all.
One of our kids was born just outside the elevator on the way to the maternity ward. My wife joked that we should call him Otis, like the elevator company. That stuck in my head and I tried to convince her to go with it.
Sadly, she wouldn’t go for it, and we had to choose a name that wasn’t an inside joke. He’s probably much healthier for it.
I love the name Otis. It’s such a classic.