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My dad wanted me to be Sarah Anne, after his late mother. My mother didn't; she couldn't tell him that she'd disliked his mother, though it was true, so she just kept on suggesting alternative names. Luckily for me, she had a delivery-room inspiration and my dad was so excited, I think he'd have agreed to almost anything; plus, I got the Anne, which was something.

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I asked them what my name would have been if I'd been a boy, and they looked embarrassed and admitted that they'd never given it a thought. They really, really wanted a girl. Both their fathers were named Thomas, so that would have been my guess; it's a good name.