My mom was born in and spent lots of her youth living in France so she picked a French first name for me. My middle name is after her insane French friend (who coincidentally is a neurologist).

Apparently I was supposed to be born a dude and they would have named me Ian, but then Christmas 1991 rolled around and I popped out a girl and low and behold they ditched the Irish af name and picked Madeline. The other girl option was Emma.

My mom's favorite Starbucks barista is named Manny, which is short for "Emanuwell." He said his mom meant to name him Emmanuel but had no idea how to spell so his name is literally spelled out phonetically. Always makes me laugh when I think about it.