Birth Names

Sasha Breshan (with two dots over the a) Banks

First off: my first name is Russian and means "defender of mankind"--lol, kinda dramatic, I know.
Secondly, my mom named both me and my older brother with names that start with the letter 'S'. She named my brother Shannon, after a high school she knew of (but never actually attended, lol).
When she had me, she let my brother (who, at the time, was 6) name me. My mom liked the idea of having a boy and a girl with unisex names, so she kept it! She wanted to name me Sasha Fashan, but luckily she changed her mind at the last minute and named me Breshan (bree-shawn).
My name is simple enough, but you wouldn't believe the amount of difficulty people had/have pronouncing it. On the daily, I get: Tasha or Sashay--> I had an Anthropology professor call me Saaasha (with the 'a' sounding like the 'a' in apple instead of 'a' as in August). When I was younger and I would meet people for the first time, they would say, "Oh! I used to have a dog named Sasha!" (Like, I wanted to know about that)*

Now that I'm older, I hear less of that, and more people say "Oo..that's very sexy..." haha

As far as my last name, I don't know the exact origin, but I do get those "Are you related to Tyra?" questions or, "Are you related to Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire?" [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

On a happeir note, once Beyonce started talking about "Sasha Fierce", people have not only begun to say it right (lol), but at my old job, customers thoroughly enjoyed singing "Single Ladies" to me at the register! When my co-workers would call for me on the intercom, they'd call me 'Sasha Fierce'. Occasionally, I meet people and they ask me if I have a sister named Malia and a dad named Barack. lol

Ps. When Hispanic people say my name...it sounds so good! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Tesia Janea (Tee-sha) (Ja-nay). My father said my mother was going to name me Kenya (because his name is Kenneth), but he chose Tesia. I don't know how they came up with either Tesia or Janea. I also had been spelling my middle name like (Janae) until I took drivers training when I was 16 and they told me I had spelled it wrong on the paper. My mother and I was like what? On my birth certificate it read J-A-N-E-A. So I had been spelling my middle name wrong all that time. My mom said they made a mistake on my birth certificate lol.

decided to bump this for all who did not share and for our newbies.

Ebony Kashan Ragin...nothing too complicated. People mispronounce my last name all the time (its pronounced Ray-gen, long a and g like in grapes).
My father named me since I'm the oldest and my mother named my sister.
Her name is Ashley Katrice.I always liked the fact that we had middle names starting with the same letter....so our initials are EKR and AKR. idk...its cool to me. lol

My name is Latasha Denise Watters. I was supposed to be named Rokiesha, after my father whose name was Roveski. My mom couldnt spell it right or something, so the nurse gave her a name book and she picked my first and middle names. My last name is supposed to be McCord, maternal gram but my mom had to get her last name changed to her dad's last name for some odd ass reason so it's Watters. There's debate on whether it's supposed to be 1 t or 2 ts. Im too old (25) at this point to care, so it's 2ts to me and my sibs.

My name is Raven Tiffanee Wright:
My mama was a big Cosby show fan and love lil Olivia on the show and while in labor the show was on TV and the credits were rolling and she saw Raven!!! soo yea dats how i got it..she named my lil sis Bianca from All my Children lol

Tiffanee is a mixture of my mama name Renee' and the name Tiffany..Its pronounced Tiff-a-nay..i always call it the ghetto version of Tiffany lol

Moriah Janette paschall my dad named me moriah which is in the Bible except he named me for this old western movie called paint your wagon (he has interesting taste LOL) there was a song in the movie called they call the wind moriah. I love my name. And I'm so glad he named me cuz my mom wanted 2 name me pheobe!

My name is Dawn Andrea (ahn-dray-ah). My mother named me Dawn because I was born -when else- at dawn 5:22 am to be exact. My sis on the other hand has only a first name (Ramona) and has been miffed her whole life that I do have a middle name. She says her name sounds like a stripper!! LOL

This thread is awesome! I love these stories.....

My name is Akira Rosyl (Ro- sil (as in window sill)) Grenardo, my mom got the name Akira when she was pregnant- she was watching a movie and the director's name was Akira, and it was her AH HA moment. LoL. Never really had a problem with it, I like it bc its different. 'Akira' in Hindu means "Free Spirit" and boy is that fitting!

My middle name on the other hand is a blessing and a curse, that is my mom's first name and her name was made up of her mom and dad's name (Ross and Sylvia...RO-SYL) Boy oh boy did I hate it. Lol... but I love the connection.

Grenardo is my dad's name, which I love bc it is Italian...and I def don't look Italian! I love how it throws people off! LoL....but my Grandfather is Hindu and on his family's journey to Guyana/America someone hooked up with an Italian, and there you have it! LoL!

My sister's name is Ria Frances Grenardo, and I think her name is cool bc when my mom was pregnant with her, she took my full name her full name and my dad's full name and picked out all of the most common letters, which happened to be A-I-R and played around with it (well actually just put it backwards) and got RIA! Frances is my father's name so she got the female version of that.

I think it is pretty cool that I have my mom's name as a middle name and my sis has my dad's.

My birth certificate says Jamilah Marie Cross. My dad is Muslim and my mom is Christian.
My dad picked Jamilah (means "beautiful" in Arabic).
My mom picked Marie.
Cross is Mom's maiden name, but I now go by Dad's last name, Shabazz. Also, the Arabic version of Marie (or Mary) is Maryam (mother of Jesus). So you can call me Jamilah Marie or Jamilah Maryam, I don't mind [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] .

People always mispronounce my name. I've heard Ja-mall-i-ah, Ja-mill-i-ah; it's Ja-meel-ah. And Shabazz is Sha-BAHZ, like "ahhhh, I get it!"

My name is Breanna Joi

Breanna: Bree-Anna not Bree- Onna. I've had people argue with me on how my name should be pronounced!!! My mother says when she was pregnant with me she wante to name me Tiffany. Somehow my father won that discussion and that's how I got my name. My father's name is Bryant so I suppose he wanted a child with the same letter (which he got with my next 4 sibs... Bryant, Breanca, Brandi-Ann and Brandon) And I get called Brenda, Brenna, Breena etc... Plus no one ever spells my name right. I've gotten awards from school with my name spelled Brianna, Breanne, Brianne and even got Brenda....

Joi: Joy. My mother's first name is Joy and that's where I got my middle name. I guess they wanted to be unique and spell it with an I instead of a Y.

LaKendra Maryellen Carr....

when i asked my mom where she got LaKendra from she said she saw Kendra in a baby name book and decided because i had cousins named LaTanya, LaWanda and LaShawn she would just add "La" to Kendra too. I have been called EVERYTHING but La-Ken-dra over the yrs and for the life of me i dont get it. My name is phonically correct. But that means nothing to lazy readers cuz ive been called Lake-n-drella (how u get the "la" in the beginning and the end of my name is beyond me) Lake-end-dra, LaKedra, LaKenya, and LaKeshia (which probably irritates me the most cuz thats the ghetto trademark name. i dont care where u are from there is a LaKeisha in every blk neighborhood). Some ppl dont even try they just say Ms. Carr which makes me feel old so i say its LaKendra and i get "OOOOOHHHH" like thats easier then I thought it would be. smh Then there is the capital "k" that i have had to fight about since pre-school. I remember telling my pre-school teacher that my "k" was capital and her arguing with me that it wasnt and me getting mad. So during parent-teacher confrences i showed my mom how they had my name on the board with the lower case "k" and the teacher said "yea she keeps saying its suppose to be a capital "k" and my mom said "thats because it is." All the teacher could say was "OH". She musta felt real bright being out smarted by a 4 yr old lol. When i got to HS my computer teacher and i would go back and forth about my precious capital "k" until one day he asked "whats the difference" and i said" my birth certificate" and from that day forward he got the point. I have had my fair share of issues with my name. LaKendra SCREAMS lil blk girl on paper and i have thought about dropping the "La" since in most cases i dont use it. (I haven't told ANYONE my name is LaKendra in YEARS lol ive been going by Kendra since about the 10th or 11th grade) But the "La" is a part of me and ppl still tell me my name is "Unique" and "Pretty", oh i get beautiful from time to time as well. I have yet to meet a LaKendra face to face but there is a group on Facebook called the LaKendra's of facebook.

Maryellen is my paternal Grandmothers first and middle names combined (Mary Ellen). My Grandmother died when my father was 11 and im his only daughter so he wanted my first name to be Mary. My Mom said he told her women named Mary have good luck (i beg to differ but w/e). My mom said "i wasnt naming u no damn Mary" lol. But still i wonder WTH were they thinking naming somebody Maryellen in the 80's. Thats like the whitest of the white straight off the farm names ever. When i ask my brother why he let them do that to me he just laughs. I think my mother just went with it to appease my daddy because i remember telling her i didnt like her middle name and she told me she didnt like mine either lol. I despise my middle name, to the point that when i graduated HS i told them if they put it on my diploma i wouldn't accept it and they would be reprinting it. I know my fathers intentions were good but i will never like it. He was the only person who ever called me that too.

Carr is my fathers family name. on some older documents im listed as McClendon-Carr My mother hyphenated her name when she married my daddy and some how my name ended up getting mixed up in all of that even though my parents married when i was like 2. (yes i know McClendon is Irish my great-great grandfather was Irish)

O when i was little the kids use to call me LaKendra vuommmmm vuommmmm skirttttttttt pshhhhhh Carr (like my name was a car crash)

Courtney Lorene Hendricks. LOL. i think my name is plain as the come but i adore my middle name b/c it was my great grandma's middle name. .

Guess I'll join the club!

Janet LaFaye Horace

My mom used to work with a woman named Faye while she was pregnant with me and liked the name so wanted to name me that...but my sister came up with the idea of naming me Janet (I'm assuming Janet Jackson had something to do with it [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]...I've heard every Janet Jackson joke in the book) So I became Janet and LaFaye was my middle name. I think my mom liked the "la" thing because my sister's name is L'Tonya (no a in between there so people spell hers wrong all the time lol) so she put it in front of Faye and there ya go.

And yes my last name is Horace like some men's first name. The story goes that my dad's great great grandmother (or something like that) was a full blooded Indian who they called "Horse" so it got mutated from there I guess...dunno if I believe that story [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another funny story, for some reason my dad never calls me Janet and always calls me LaFaye (which he confuses with my sister's name often lol my mom does too). When we're both at home and they call one of us, both come because we don't know who they "really" wanted.

Christian Nicole

No I am not a BOY!!! I love my name and it was my dads choice. I'm his only child so my mom let him name me. I'm really glad she did too because she wanted to name me Sarah Elizabeth. Can you say old? Her reasoning was Sarah had a baby in her old age and Elizabeth did too. Sometimes I wonder if her "old age" killed her sense of adventure cause my sisters name is Aerica Elethia, America without the 'm'. Yeah don't ask. Anyway, my name means Victorious Follower of Christ, Nicole means Victory but I flip the meaning around so it makes sense in a sentence lol. Anywho, I have been called everything from Christina to Christine to Christmas!! I must say the worst thing that every happened was being put in boys PE in 6th grade. Obviously they fixed it but I was so hurt. Now I couldn't care less. Whenever I get mail addressed to Mr. Christian I just throw it straight in the trash because they OBVIOUSLY don't know me.

Renon Yvette Lyons (like the animal...ROAR!)

Well, as my mom tells it...I was supposed to be a boy...she just knew she was having a boy and his name was to be DAVID ELLIOT [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ...WTH? Anyway, I came instead and as Christian (above) said...I am not a boy! She said I wore blue for the first year of my life because that's all she'd bought...SMH.

Anyway...where did Renon (WRen-on) come from? Honestly, it takes my mother to say it...she makes it sound soooo good! LOL So she needed a girl's name ASAP, right? At the time, she was in nursing school and there was a woman there named Renon Williams. My mother said this woman was so classy and she carried herself so well...she just decided to give me that name! Fast forward 17 years...I went to a BBQ with a neighbor, it turned out to be the family of a girl from high school..a big family with many sisters/aunts...when I introduced myself...everything stopped. RE: They had a Renon, too! And the craziest thing...we talked about it and found we were named after the same classy lady! How 'bout that? That Renon must have been something to inspire two different women to name their daughters after her. I try to live up to the image as often as possible.

Did I used to hate my name? Oh, yes! As a young girl, I wanted a name like Tonya, Kim or Lisa. I wanted to be named Pamela (don't ask me why) sooooo bad. SMH But as I'd grown older, of course, I LOVED my name...you don't run across it too much... and I try to make sure you never forget it, either! (And folks always do...they're like..."it starts with an R, but I just can't remember it!)

As for the middle, it sounded French like my first and last names, so she ran with it!

Side notes: Yaki Girl's middle name (my daughter, Tatiana) is Yvette, also. When she was about 3, she asked, "Are my daddy middle name Yvette, too?" My thought...it should be daughter, it should be! LOL I had to share that one!

@Nubie...Man...I ALWAYS use Keisha (see, not spelled the same) as my stereotypical Black/ghetto girl name! Iz sorry...I gotta come up with a new one! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Christina Washington But my team mates call me Tink

NubieNatty wrote:I got the most ghetto n video vixen/boyz n the hood movie type names of all time. Kisha...actually its TiKisha and i make sure i let everyone know NOT to put an E in my name cuz it makes it ghetto. Think kEyshia cole; kEcia, kEisha, kiEsha, Ke$ha (she aint foolin me wit some dmn keh-sha...im like chic thats a fancy way of sayin Kesha [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] )

Kisha meaning the around the way girl, kickin it on the porch wit the fellaz, braiding their hair wit a 40 oz on the side. knows all the dope boyz, long SWV nails wit a fake LV bag who loves goin to the club wit her girls. mean muggin the haters n buckin on those red bones who "think they all that". hmmm, think Apache video "gangsta bytch".

ok ok ok i know i have a wild imagination but i use to HATE hearin my name on all the ghetto movies; menace II society, belly, or anything stereotyping ghetto-ness. So i let it be known i have TI in front to classy it up. i have no friggin idea why my DAD named me kisha and i keep forgettin to ask [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Tikisha Marie Monagan; my middle name is from my mom and i got like 3 gf's wit the same. i plan on passin it down to my daughter someday **gazing into the heavens** i cant stand my last name and cant wait to get married to change it...it'll be just my luck my husband's last name is Mortimer, Roach, Egglestone, Dicksway or some other random name more weird than mine like Boogermuncher or some crap [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ...so i guess it could be worse. folks ask if im german or irish...ummm no im BLACK (refer to first name)

This was HILARIOUS!!!! I almost died laughing!

Ok, my name is Robin LaShanna Blair (I go by Robin)- My first name is after my God-sister who died 6 months before I was born. She was 17 years old and a gymnist. She fell on the unbalanced beam and went to the hospital. They sent her home, not realizing she had internal bleeding. She died the next day. I don't care for my first name but because of the story I'll keep it. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] My middle name is the MOST ghetto thing on the planet. My mother was on the La, Le thing as my brother's name is LeMont. Not sure WHAT was going through her head. My last name is pretty boring.

I'm loving these stories.

Also - someone mispronounced my first name - "Rooobine" Can you believe it?!!

Krystal Raquel Nicole L****n
Yes I have 2 middle names. My mom does and so do all my sisters

I think she named me Krystal after the singer Crystal Gayle with hair down to her feet (hahah hair has alwaysbeen an issue from my birth apparently [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ) And put a K because it was less common...at the time. My dada gave me Raquel and I think it was supposed to be my 1st name but my mom said it sounded too Hard and Jamaican..lol I think it's pretty. I don't know how I got boring nicole as another name

I go by any of my names. You can call me Krys, Kryssi, Nikki, Nicole, Krystal, or Raquel

Im so happy I didn't get super Ghetto latina name of older sister Myava Miesha Dionna or the super Caucasian name of younger sis Brittany Camille Amber. hahah

And no offense to anyone but I am so happy I have no "la" of "ka" or "ti" in my names

Chijioke Ezinne Ogba - my whole name is Nigerian . my father is nigerian ( igbo ) but my mother is Jamaican and my grandmothers name is chijioke too . i LOVE my first name but i would switch it with my middle name b.c i think it fits and i love it so much ! they r very meaningful names .

Allison Nicole Graham

Pretty boring name to me!!! Story behind my first name is my mother was sitting in a park, and there was this pretty little white girl that was there. She asked the mother what was here name, and she said Allison. That's how I got my first name. As the spelling goes, for years I have been spelling it with only one L. My name was suppose to be with one L, but the nurse in the delivery room started arguing with my mother on the spelling. The story for years has and always will be that the nurse changed my name on the birth certificate without my mother knowing. Ain't that some Bullsh*t. For short people call me Al or Ally.

As for my middle name no story there, but my mom did wanted it to be Yvettte, but changed her mind. My last name is my mothers last name. She never married my father but if she did it would have been Brian.

TheRYL1 wrote:Renon Yvette Lyons (like the animal...ROAR!)

Well, as my mom tells it...I was supposed to be a boy...she just knew she was having a boy and his name was to be DAVID ELLIOT [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ...WTH? Anyway, I came instead and as Christian (above) said...I am not a boy! She said I wore blue for the first year of my life because that's all she'd bought...SMH.

Anyway...where did Renon (WRen-on) come from? Honestly, it takes my mother to say it...she makes it sound soooo good! LOL So she needed a girl's name ASAP, right? At the time, she was in nursing school and there was a woman there named Renon Williams. My mother said this woman was so classy and she carried herself so well...she just decided to give me that name! Fast forward 17 years...I went to a BBQ with a neighbor, it turned out to be the family of a girl from high school..a big family with many sisters/aunts...when I introduced myself...everything stopped. RE: They had a Renon, too! And the craziest thing...we talked about it and found we were named after the same classy lady! How 'bout that? That Renon must have been something to inspire two different women to name their daughters after her. I try to live up to the image as often as possible.

Did I used to hate my name? Oh, yes! As a young girl, I wanted a name like Tonya, Kim or Lisa. I wanted to be named Pamela (don't ask me why) sooooo bad. SMH But as I'd grown older, of course, I LOVED my name...you don't run across it too much... and I try to make sure you never forget it, either! (And folks always do...they're like..."it starts with an R, but I just can't remember it!)

As for the middle, it sounded French like my first and last names, so she ran with it!

Side notes: Yaki Girl's middle name (my daughter, Tatiana) is Yvette, also. When she was about 3, she asked, "Are my daddy middle name Yvette, too?" My thought...it should be daughter, it should be! LOL I had to share that one!

@Nubie...Man...I ALWAYS use Keisha (see, not spelled the same) as my stereotypical Black/ghetto girl name! Iz sorry...I gotta come up with a new one! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

very unique name, hey guess what? My middle name is yvette too [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks for pushing this back up Crissy! It's fun to go back. I posted right after i broke my wrist and never returned (trying to type with one hand was rough!)... Just saw that you responded. But this is fun to read again and learn about everyone now that I know some folks.

poeticlyspkng wrote:Thanks for pushing this back up Crissy! It's fun to go back. I posted right after i broke my wrist and never returned (trying to type with one hand was rough!)... Just saw that you responded. But this is fun to read again and learn about everyone now that I know some folks.

I know, I read it over again too, and nubie has got to have the best story. I laugh everytime I read it.

Hey CrissyQ...I mean CrissyYvetteQ! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yes, I enjoy this thread...it's cool to get real names & the stories behind them. Yeah, Nubie's is too funny! LOL