The Accidental Name

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

I thought this was one of the oddest naming stories I've heard:

A co-worker of mine is named Elaine. When she was born, her mother had no idea what to name her, so she had all her sisters and sisters-in-law put names in a hat, and the one she drew, was the baby's name. On top of which, she misread the name from the hat: it was supposed to be Eileen.

My co-worker just laughs, I guess she's had her whole life to get used to it, but I'd feel very strange about having a totally random mean that meant absolutely nothing to my parents or even my aunt!

Comments

[skudge.livejournal.com]

She picked Stacey, and I don't like it...not sure it has anything to do with it being chosen randomly. It just has always reminded me of math for some reason.

My mom did spend a lot of time thinking of what she wanted my Chinese name to be, but it didn't get used in the end; my grandma (dad's mom) called her a couple of hours after I was born and informed her of what my name was going to be. Maybe that's why for my little sister, my mom spent a lot of time picking her English name and didn't bother coming up with a Chinese name for her.

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Wow. Me and Grams would have some words. I know how powerful the dad's mom can be in a Chinese family, but I would still go nuclear. I guess it's fortunate for everyone that I'm not Chinese!

Stacey's not bad. Just think, if her finger had gone an inch up or down, you could have been Sonya or Stella! Or maybe you would have liked those better, idk.