Tina tagged me and well, I guess i have to sort of spit out the reason why I picked Rainier for my son’s name. I am warning you now, the story is soo corny! He he.

Well…first of all, he is supposedly the son of a “King” and so I thought that (when I knew I was pregnant) if I will have a boy, he’s going to be the “Prince” and so Rainier was the first name that automatically came to my mind - for Prince Rainier of Monaco.

That and the fact that most of my professional life, the German influence was so huge. :-P

But the common/newer German version is actually Rainer (pronounced RIE-ner) and as explained by my ex-boss (all my ex-bosses were German!), Rainier is actually French pronounced the French way (heck I can’t even write how it is pronounced, by I guess you know what I mean!).

So when my pregnancy ultrasound confirmed that I was having a boy - Rainier he became. Otherwise, it would have been a coin toss between Kristine and Katherine - my two favorite girl names in the whole world!

[Raine’s second name: Brando - is what the “King” wanted to name him. Agreeing to it as Raine’s second name was one of my meet-you-halfway moves back then. Silly me! But you know what? I kind of warmed up to the Brando after all these years. Rainier Brando has a commanding ring to it, it is so masculine. Raine doesn’t like it very much though, if you ask him these days what his name is, he will answer with Rainier Gamat Brando - putting Brando in the very last because it’s his less favorite name which actually makes some people think Brando is a surname! Maybe I’ll just have to get married to somebody-Brando then we’ll be all set? Bwehehe.]

Anyways. Rainier is such a tongue-twister especially the way Filipinos pronounce it - pronouncing it as it is written: R-a-i-n-i-e-r. Imagine rolling tongues with all the rrrs.
So, together with my housemate then (Ging), we decided on the nickname Raine (i just added the e to distinguish from rain the ulan) - influenced by watching re-runs of Friends on TV.

(Remember that episode when Ross and Rachel were discussing names for their coming baby girl? Ross actually didn’t want the name Rain.)

So there. Raine. After all, in my personal life, when it rains it pours - and Raine will always remind me of that. ;-)

What about you, what is the story behind your children’s names? I guess they’re far more profound than mine. Ha ha ha!
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By the way, Prince Rainier of Monaco died last year at age 81.

According to Behind The Name, Rainier is the French form of Rayner (pronounced Ray-nur): from the germanic name Reginar, composed of the elements ragin “advice” and heri “army” - a name brought to Britain by the Normans.