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Did You Have an Almost Name?

Question of the week: Was there a different name under consideration for you before you were born?

For me it was Lydia or Laurel, both of which I kinda prefer to Linda.

So, have your parents ever revealed to you the other choices they had discussed?  Was there a whole list, or just one main contender?

Was it a close call?  At what point was the final decision made?  Did your almost name almost make it onto your birth certificate?

Do you think it would have fit you as well—or better?–than the one that won out?

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.

View all of Linda Rosenkrantz's articles →

The Nameberry App is live

Find your perfect baby name together in our app, now available on the App Store and Google Play.

  • Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
  • Names you match on are saved to your shared list
  • Recommendations that learn from you and your partner's picks
  • Invite friends and family to find names you all love
  • Backed by Nameberry's 20 years of name-preference data
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