My heritage is German with a bit of English thrown in to balance it out. My Grandmother Miller's name was Katherine. A fine name for one of either heritage, but hers was German, and she was always called Kate as I recall. Anyway, my mother liked that name but not the woman so much, so she decided to call me Kathleen. A fine Irish name of which I have no claim of heritage. She also called me Kathleen and thought that since she did no one else would have the audacity to call me anything else. She obviously forgot my father since he was away fighting in the war and only wrote to her. But the war ended and he came home, whereupon, he briskly called me Katrina (German) or Kathy, both to her dismay and displeasure. However, being a stubborn German, (I know, that is a stereotype, but knowing my dad, apt.) he persisted and she relented. I was known then and forever as Kathy. However, the most interesting part of this to me is that I have never felt like a Kathy - even as a young child. I feel like a Kathleen and I like how Kathleen looks written out. The end of all this about myself is that it would have made more sense to me to just name me Katherine to honor my heritage and still the nickname would have been the same.
My children:
I wanted my children to have names that were not so common that there would be several in their classrooms at school with the same name. That was often the case as I grew up and I still experience multiple Kathys wherever I go. When teaching there were five of us at working at the school, in church there are four, and while attending school there were always more that three per classroom. So while having a sure knowledge that I wanted my first born son to have my maiden name as his middle name, we had a hard time finding a name to agree on. I didn't have the benefit of being alone as my mother had been in choosing a name since my husband lived in the same house with me every day. One day while driving home from work I passed a business with a huge name sign and logo in front that said "Miller Ryan and Associates" or Company or something like that. Bingo - both my husband and I agreed on reversing that and we had a name: Ryan Miller Curtis. Back in those days we couldn't find out until the birth what sex the child was so we had an alternate name for a girl, Amy (after a character in Little Women) Kathleen Curtis. That was easier, I liked it and my husband didn't object. On August 31 Ryan Miller Curtis was born. Five years later the name was almost as common as Kathy had been for me as a child. But at least not while he was in school - he was five years ahead of the name game.
Almost 2 1/2 years later we were struggling with names again. This time I was sure I was having a girl so I don't even remember what name we picked out for a boy but it was probably Alex. My first choice for a girl had been Megan ever since I read that name in a story and as an homage to Meg in Little Women since I hated the name Margaret. That was totally not agreeable to my husband. He also wasn't so sure about the next name I wanted for a girl but when she was born very early in the morning I think he wanted sleep more than an argument so he agreed on Courtney but wanted to pick the middle name. I was so happy to have a Courtney I quickly agreed. I thought it was the name of an old girl friend of his, although he denied it, but I didn't even care since it was pretty. My Courtney Melissa Curtis was born on May 7. Such a pretty name but it took at least ten years for it to become popular much to her dismay. She always wanted to find items with her name on them and it was so obscure we couldn't until she was an adult. I made her a pair of jeans once and put her name on the back pocket where the logo should have gone and that somewhat appeased her.
A bit over a year later we were working on the names for another child. Again as a big fan of the book Little Women I wanted a Bethany we could call Beth. My husband hated the name Bethany but liked Elizabeth and agreed we could call her Beth. Once again the male name was Alex. I only wish I had spelled it Elisabeth at the time, but on March 30 Elizabeth Kay Curtis was born. I wanted to name her after myself (but of course!) but thought Elizabeth Kathleen Curtis was just too much and I didn't want just an initial so went for Kay in place of Kathleen. Because her first name was so old fashioned we didn't give her my old fashioned middle name, Mae, although that too would have been short. Funny thing was though, her Grandfather Curtis periodically would call her Elizabeth Mae - guess we could have just gone with that. Beth had what I thought was a most common name (Elizabeth) at the time of her birth but names were going in the direction of unusual at that time so she never had other kids with the name Beth in her classes. They may have had the proper name but not the shortened Beth.
Finally, almost four years later, pregnant with my last child we were in the name game again. I really wanted Noah by this time but again was nixed on that name. Luckily we still had Alex on the brain for a boy and although we considered Alexander for a moment, we knew we wouldn't call him that so why make that his name. Had he been a girl he would have been Carrie Kathleen. No Little Women reference this time. His middle name we agreed would be after his father. On July 6 Alex Veral Curtis was born. Now both Alex and I wish we had chosen a different middle name, he won't even tell people his middle name unless required by law. I wish I had given him the same middle name as Ryan. But it was just a few years later that Alex was very common. With all the trouble we went to with names in the end it just didn't seem to matter. Find one you like and don't worry about the popularity.
