MPT--How I Got My Name

Finally, it's time for me to post my first "piggy tale." Heehee! This week's subject is "Details about your birth/How you got your name" but I thought I'd also include a little background info to "set the stage" for all my memories. I hope you enjoy!

I was born and raised in a suburb north of Chicago. When my parents met, my mom was an accountant and my dad was a consultant at a large accounting firm. Back in the day, this firm had a policy that if two employees got married, one would have to quit, presumably the woman. So my mom quit when they got married, but she continued to work elsewhere until my older sister was born. My parents got married in 1970, my older sister was born in '73, I came along in '74 and I have two younger sisters born in '77 and '80. My mom stayed at home with us all those years (she went back to work once we were all moved out). My parents are still married today, coming up on 40 years in August. My dad took early retirement from the big firm when I was in college and has worked off and on since then.

We grew up on a great little street; we were the house at the end of the cul-de-sac; we had lots of neighbor kids to play with. We actually didn't move into this house till I was 4, but I don't remember the previous house at all. Over the years, my parents built onto the house as we started to outgrow it, and only sold it a couple years ago when they downsized to a condo.

So that's my backstory--second of 4 girls, growing up on a quaint little street in the suburbs, mom stayed home, dad went to work in the big city. Now for my birth/name story.....

Apparently my parents wanted my older sister and I to be two years apart in age. It had taken them 5 months to conceive my sister so estimating a similar time frame, they went off the Pill. Oops, they got pregnant right away and therefore my sister and I are a mere 20 months apart. My mom says my sister never really got over my arrival. (She's kind of a b*tch--you can read a lovely anecdote about her here.) I was late--I think I was almost two weeks overdue when I finally was born. (3 out of my mom's 4 kids were overdue. I, however, have early kids. L was a preemie at 35 weeks, T made it one day short of 39 weeks.) And I weighed a whopping 9 pounds!

Now this is an anonymous blog so I don't use my real name. I love my name, it's unique but not weird, it's Irish, I love it. Sorry, I know that kind of takes some of the fun out of this story, but bear with me. We'll pretend my name is Charlotte Lee.

While my mom was pregnant with me, my parents went to some state fair type of event in Indiana. My mom's sister, Anjie, was in a beauty pageant. They were watching this pageant and there was a contestant named Charlotte. One parent said to the other, "that's a nice name" and the other agreed. Then my mom asked, "But what would her middle name be" and my dad replied "Lee." Just like that, totally random. Now the part of this story that I'm fuzzy on is either my aunt won the pageant and Charlotte was runner-up, or Charlotte won and Anjie came in second. Either way, my aunt and my namesake did well. ;-) There you have it--the story of how I got my name!

Now, go over to Mommy's Piggy Tales to read others' birth and name stories. And if this is your first time visiting Life with L&T, I'd love for you to take a look around, leave a comment (I'll return the visit) or become a follower. Thanks for stopping by!