31 Comments
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David's avatar

My sister couldn’t say David so my family name has always been Daisy

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Helen Barrell's avatar

Daisy's a lovely name! I'd love a name like that. Mine really doesn't feel very elegant!

My mum wanted to name me Helena, after St Helena, but my dad vetoed it as he said it was too flowery, so instead, I became... Helen. I wonder what my life would've been like as a Helena. I expect I'd be terribly glamorous and drive a 1960s sports car around the Riviera, a tulle scarf floating behind me.

With my surname, I think I should run a pub, brewery, or distillery or make guns. Instead, I'm a librarian, which is completely unrelated!

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

I think Helen is a beautiful name - xxx

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Helen Barrell's avatar

Oh, thank you!

I need to remember Helen of Troy!

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Letitia Fitzpatrick's avatar

Daisy is also the name of Meg’s daughter in Louisa M Alcott’s Little Women. Also, there is a musical dedicated to Ottilie Patterson at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.

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Raffaella  Barker's avatar

Hah! Venetia - my favourite Georgette Heyer novel, and still a name to reckon with. XXX

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

and impossible to abbreviate - i still bristle when people call me Daise

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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

Absolutely, it's a grand name. It's her most mature book I think - although A Civil Contract and The Grand Sophy run it close.

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Miranda Worsley's avatar

My favourite is a genuine American pollster called Krystal Ball

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Patrice Wells's avatar

My great grandmother’s name was Daisy. She was married five times. Her last married name was Fink. As children growing up, a fink was someone who tattled, so to have a great grandmother named Daisy Fink was funny.

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

it’s an oxymoron

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La Strach's avatar

My name is Lesley. When I meet another Lesley (if American often Leslie). we are often around the same age give or take 5 years. Who was a famous Lesley around the late 50's/early 60's?

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

leslie Caron?

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Gina Ferrari's avatar

Daisy is a delightful name. I spent my childhood being asked if 'Gina' was short for something (it wasn't) or with some people (my Maths teacher in particular) not knowing how to pronounce it but it seems to be more common these days. I haven't a clue why my parents chose it - they denied it had anything to do with Gina Lollobrigida but she was the only known Gina back then in the late 50s. Their alternative name for me was Michelle but I think I prefer what I've got.

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Wendy Varley's avatar

Hmmm. Now you mention it, I don't personally know any other Daisys. There aren't many Wendys about, either!

I love the stair carpet bearing Ottilie Losch's footprint. What a genius idea!

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

wendy was a name invented by JM Barrie

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Wendy Varley's avatar

Yes! Fwendy wendy ‘friendy wendy’ was what his friend’s daughter used to call JM Barrie, so he used the name in Peter Pan. My mum and dad liked that association. There’s one other Wendy at choir around my age and I’ve spotted a couple on Substack, so we’re not entirely obsolete.

I’ve just remembered my son had a friend at school called Daisy (she’ll be 23 now), so you might stage a resurgence!

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Claire Ivins's avatar

Daisy is a lovely name! It often feels as though 30% of girls born in the early 1960s in the UK were baptised Claire or Clare. In my older child’s primary school class there were four mothers called Claire/Clare. I compensated by having a weird surname no one had ever heard of before and which was always misspelt by other people.

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Amanda Craig's avatar

I have a heroine called Daisy in my forthcoming novel High & Low - she is the opposite to you in every way but it’s a name I love. The patron saint of Cortona, where I grew up, is Sta Margherita ( who promised to protect the town from earthquakes) and therefore daisies are painted everywhere. A tiny but mighty flower!

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Jane Saunte's avatar

My husband firmly believes that the name you go by determines your character and fate. As his mother named him and his sister John and Jane (essentially the same name I believe), maybe he felt he had to make his mark in the world by expressing an opinion on the subject. He is a John to the core, although his sister is nothing like him and certainly neither demure nor dull. (Jane attributes as I see it).

My name is so unusual that I post everywhere under a pseudonym (dull and quiet Jane) as it's such a pleasure to be basically ordinary . I didn't meet anyone with the same name until I was over 30, and only one since.

My grandparents were to blame, I'm named after an aunt. An uncle was called Hector Maximilian (a power complex, I wonder?) My older brother was named Oscar, which is having a resurgence. It was a nickname for sailors of somewhat rumbunctious behaviour in days gone by.

My grandfather, unbelievably, was born in 1865 (all the older generations of this family waited until they were over 40 before having children) so he was named Albert, after Victoria's husband. This has passed down to my brother, whose middle name is Albert.

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

please tell me your real name - I am fascinated

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Jane Saunte's avatar

But then everyone would see it! Clue - it's biblical, Old Testament.

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

jezebel?

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Jane Saunte's avatar

If you have a private message function like on FB where one can PM, I will tell you!

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Jane Saunte's avatar

No. I would have changed it if it were that! Although it is listed in baby names books as having the meaning "servant" which is pretty awful but I've always ignored that. In OT, one of David's wives.

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Daisy Goodwin's avatar

i have looked them up

and I admit that some of the names might ne more challenging than others - Abigail amd Bathsheba rock but Haggith anf Eglah need a lot of styling xoxoox

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Jane Saunte's avatar

Wow, I am impressed with your sleuthing skills. Well, you deserve the reward, and I'm counting on no-one else bothering to read this far. It's the first one you mention. And, given that my paternal aunt was the source of my first, my mother insisted on having her own way for my second name (of three). She wanted Philomene Isolde, after the heroine of her favourite children's book, "The Fairy Latchkey". My father put his foot down over Philomene, so my second name is Isolde. I have spent a lifetime correcting people who want to spell it Isolda. I quite like Isolde, and I love the third one, Elizabeth. I was expected to be born on Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953, hence Elizabeth, but turned up 6 days early, depriving my mother of the free pram and silver spoon she would have got.

So I have three multi-syllable Christian names - such a mouthful when giving security details over the phone, and always having to spell them out. I love being plain Jane, my alter ego.

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Sasha Neal's avatar

Loved this. I’m yet to meet a Sasha older than me but the little ones are everywhere!

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Zena Higgs's avatar

I remember reading Princess Daisy as a teen languishing in bed as I worked funny shifts! Now there's the glamorous TV ad

Daisy , Daisy, Daisy!

For the perfume.

My surname as a child was Vickers and an unfortunate nickname was Seen your Knickers even the odd - very odd - teacher would chant it.

Mother declared once she nearly called me Victoria but it was too nice a name for someone who had ruined her life!!

So she gave me a name which was popular with German Shepherd dogs left in garden kennels on council estates!

I don't think she would know it meant daughter of Zeus! She would have enjoyed that as she often sneered at my illegitimacy!!

I called my youngest daughter Lilybeth she was born in September 1997. A meaningful tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth.at the time we thought after a very tough three weeks as monarch. Daughter hates it!

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Jane Saunte's avatar

Your mother sounds rather a difficult one to grow up with.

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Sound practice well-being's avatar

I was the lone Kerry at primary school - my Irish mother loved the name. But by the time I left school Kerry and Kerrie were much more common. My nickname - not too bad - was berry.

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