SerpApi.Org
A woman was left stunned after discovering her baby book from the 1980s and finding a handwritten list of the names her parents had considered before she was born.
The revelation was shared in a June 29 Threads post by user @tashmeri, who posted a photograph of a page from the baby book alongside a caption expressing disbelief at some of the potential names.
“I found my baby book today and here are the names my parents were going to name me in the 80s,” she wrote. “They really wanted me to be old soooo bad! Sutcliff??? Leonarda??? Cecil?? Peggy?? Sharleen???”
The image shows a page featuring a handwritten message at the top that reads: “One of these names will be yours.” Another handwritten note at the bottom adds: “Natasha, your dad pick these names before you were born.”
The page contains a list of 15 possible names for girls and 15 for boys. The suggested girls’ names included Camille, Charmaine, Emily, Paloma, Leonarda, Peggy, while the boys’ list featured names such as Alexander, Jason, Alfonso and Weddell, among others.
The Threads post comes at a time when baby naming trends continue to evolve in the United States.
According to the U.S. Social Security Administration’s annual rankings, Olivia and Liam have remained the most popular names for baby girls and boys for seven consecutive years, from 2019 through 2025. During the same period, Emma and Noah consistently held second place.
Looking at a longer historical period, the SSA said: “Over the last 100 years, the boy name Michael has held the top spot most often (44 times), while the girl name Mary has been ranked number one 30 times over those years.”
Experts have also examined why certain names become more popular than others. Adam Cooper, a linguist and professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, suggested that pronunciation may play a role.
Popular names often avoid “hard stops” in pronunciation, Cooper told Northeastern Global News in May 2024. “Names like Patrick, Peter or Greg—these are names that would be more ‘stopful,’ so to speak…” he said at the time.
‘Crazy’
The Threads post struck a chord with other users, many of whom were amused by some of the less common names on the list.
User @justlaurynnn wrote: “Leonarda is CRAZYYY,” while @prudencebonds_art drew attention to one of the boys’ names, asking: “Can we talk about Weddell?”
Others found humor in seeing conventional choices appear alongside more unusual options.
Meanwhile, @steeped_pages commented: “I’m way too amused by Emily and Jason being on the same list as Leonarda and Sutcliff.”
“Ok but Paloma would have been cool…” wrote @shayna_s_23.
Another commenter suggested that some of the names might find favor with younger generations today. “Gen Z is saving this list for their future rn [right now] they love oldtimey names,” @ur_gal_pau wrote.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via Threads.
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