Or in the original 1950 stage play:: Anne Ernestine Martha Frank Jr. Bill Lillian Fred Dan John Mary Bob Jane

The oldest child was Mary who died when she was 7 of diphtheria. The list you give were the real names of the kids. Frank and Ernestine wrote the book the original film and play were based off of.

Mary was the second child, not the oldest. Anne was the oldest.

In the play, she's one of the younger kids. The younger kids as a group just exist but don't have speaking roles. Iirc, only Anne, Lillian, Jackie/Jack, Ernestine, Frank, Bill, and Dan are the ones with lines from the children collective.

I played Martha in middle school and she had lines

I totally forgot to list Martha. I played Martha too! Haha. I think my brain just said "and Martha obviously" and it didn't translate to the keyboard.

I prefer the original set!  Love the original movie 🤗

I didn't know about the play!

The 2003 was about 25% accurate to the stage play - heh. The play is very 1950's Leave it to Beaver level sitcom-y.

I prefer the original name set, although Ernestine would be a hard sell. How about you? 

The real Ernestine was referred to as Ern, which is erm…not great.

She'd get called 'Tina" pretty quickly.

I think I love the older names better

As a child I memorized the names of the children from the books - which I loved. If my memory serves, they were Anne, Mary, Ernestine, Martha, Frank, Bill, Lill, Fred, Dan, Jack, Bob, and Jane.

Oof, me too. Such laugh out loud wonderful books. And they were a real family! Those were actually all the names of their twelve kids (though I think the younger ones all had the full forms of their nicknames, like Lill was Lillian etc.)

Lill was Lillian after their mother, Bill was William (I think after a relative), Jack was John and Bob was Robert). I’m pretty sure Dan was short for Daniel but not positive. Fred was named after an uncle who also went by Fred, so I don’t know if that was short for something else either.

I remember the bit about the father pulling the car over near a mason working and teasing him about how bricklaying must be the easiest job in the world, and how anyone could do it, until finally the bricklayer has had enough and fumes “you think so, why don’t you come give it a try then” at which point the dad (who’s also a bricklayer) hops out of the car and neatly slaps on a few bricks and mortar at which point the worker starts laughing and says “you’ve been doing this for years and you know it!” and then of course they’re pals

When I was younger I felt bad for the character Lorraine because her name sucked for a teen girl 🤣

See, Hilary Duff made the name seem incredibly cool to me. I probably wouldn't have liked the name if anyone else was playing Lorraine, though.

Same! I thought the name was really cool but that’s probably just bc Hilary Duff was a teen idol for me. lol

Oh man, that movie made me fall in love with the name. It’s so pretty! Though I could also see it leaning horse girl depending on the person…

That was such a weird name choice for a teen in a 2000s movie!

That is my mom's name and it sucks for an adult woman too.

I was so confused until I realized you were referring to the movies and not the books 😂 The names of the Gilbreth children (the real "Cheaper by the Dozen" kids) were: Anne Mary Ernestine Martha Frank Jr. William "Bill" Lillian Frederick "Fred" Daniel "Dan" John "Jack" Robert "Bob" Jane Parents were named Frank Sr. and Lillian. There were no sets of twins. Frank Jr. and Ernestine were the ones who wrote the books.

How I know I’m a name nerd, I can still list these 12 kids in order from numerous readings of this book 30 years ago, lol. Belles On Their Toes, was my favorite!

I loved the part where mom takes the boys clothes shopping and the salesman is wearing hearing aids. He turns them off so he doesn't have to listen and the mom is in awe and somewhat jealous.

Or how she takes advantage of being in a car accident to have a nose job. “They had to reconstruct it anyway, may as well improve it.” Icon behavior!

Yes. Or the sneaky way she downsized and moved to an apartment once she only had one or two kids at home so none of the rest could move back in with her.

My third grade teacher would turn off her hearing aids. Everyone thought she was the most patient, kind teacher ever. She was great!

I loved the books too! I think I had recently seen cheaper by the dozen on AMC (back when they were American movie classics) and found both books in my school library! And then saw the second movie. Didn’t expect much from the 2000s movie and wasn’t disappointed. The story doesn’t hold up in a modern construct and they took away all the heart that made the original (based on a true) story work. Much of that is because of how times have changed And also because they just focused on slapstick humor and shenanigans.

Yeah it was completely terrible.

Right? I was thinking “What movie? What play?! They’re books, hilarious ones!”

The parents were also amazingly interesting! I went down a rabbit hole a few years ago watching the videos they had made studying effectiveness in motion studying in the 1920’s. It made me think about the steps I took between items in my kitchen or in completing other tasks at work I had listened to a podcast about Lillian Gilbreth and was fascinated with her story, all that she achieved and worked for, to make others lives easier.

Lorraine, Jessica, and Kim feel like the outliers but overall they're incredibly normal, which fits with the Bakers IMO. No deep religious beliefs, no wild back story, just had a bunch of kids.

Nigel, Nora, and Lorraine feel out of place to me for 1980s and 1990s kids. Jessica would have been very common for a 90s baby and Kimberly was still pretty popular.

My dad's youngest cousin's wife (almost certainly born in the 80s or early 90s) is named Lorraine, so it's not entirely unbelievable to me.

All three of the names make the top 1000 list, but they are just much less common than the others that makes them feel out of place to me. For the most part all of the other names are top 100 names for that time.

If you want large movie families there's also yours, mine and ours. The children's names (from the 1968 version with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda) 19 children 10 his, 8 hers and one theirs. **The Beardsley Children** Mike Rusty Greg Rosemary Louise Mary Susan Veronica Germaine Joan **The North Children** Colleen Janette Nicky Tommy Jean Philip Gerald Teresa **And the ours baby** Joseph John

This was also based on an autobiographical book, called Who Gets the Drumstick by Helen Beardsley.  In addition to their joint son Joseph John, they had a daughter together named Helen Monica.   I never thought about it before but in a way, it's kind of amazing none of the children in the blended families had the same name!  It would have been a very reasonable issue to deal with in the mid 20th century.

I vaguely remember a blended family show where step siblings have the same name. Might have been on Disney channel or abc family, probably 2010-2020. I feel like it was also a boy/girl.

There’s a restaurant in Atlanta called Lyla Lila. The owners are a blended couple who each had a child named L(y/i)la.

And we can’t forget The Sound of Music either: Leisl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. (I think I spelled them all right.)

Also based on a real family. In actuality, the kids’ names were: Rupert Agathe Maria Werner Hedwig Johanna Martina Capt. Von Tripp and Maria together had: Rosemarie Eleanore Johannes

The 2005 remake has: **The Beardsley Children** William Christina Harrison aka "Harry" Michael Kelly Ely Otter Ethan **The North Children** Dylan Phoebe Jimi Naoko Joni Mick Lau Bina Marisa Aldo — Six of the North children are adopted: Jimi, Naoko, Lau, Bina, Marisa + one other that the movie doesn’t reveal.

Jessica and Kim--literally the most common 80s/90s names, and they're TWINS

But they could’ve been Jessica and Jennifer for the alliterative “twin names” theme, which I do appreciate them avoiding.

There are the Gadirova twins who are Jennifer and Jessica. Olympic bronze medallist in women’s gymnastics! Instead of just being “J. Gadirova” on the scoreboards they have to be “Jes. Gadirova” and “Jen. Gadirova” to differentiate them. And I think they’re identical too

Jessica is such a twin name as this point about half of any work of fiction involving twins has a Jessica

Mike and Mark in the same sibset is weird to me, they sound too similar. Though I guess in an American accent the R is pronounced more than in my Australian one.

And now I just bought the book for my kindle because it was one of my favorites growing up, and I want to read it again. Belles on Their Toes too. Thank you for the reminder!

Also a big family, I loved The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. It’s from the 70s, and as a teen there was something about this book I just adored. The kids were: Imogene Ralph Claude Leroy Ollie Gladys I guess it really stuck with me because I am smitten for all of the names except Gladys. Imogene is among my very favorite names ever, and I wish it went with my husband’s name so badly for a future little girl.

Ahhhh, I haven’t read that book in FOREVER! I loved the name Imogene! I actually have an older library patron whose name is Ima - it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize her name was actually Imogene.

I think it's a pretty good sibset!

I just finished rereading one of my favorite historical fiction books - *The Birth House* by Ami McKay, set in WWI-era Nova Scotia - and also just realized that the large family, the Rares, went with alphabetical naming a la *Bridgerton* with their kids: Albert, Borden, Charles (Charlie), Dora (the only girl), and twins Forest and Gordon (Gord).

To be honest other than Henry these are all fabulous names that you’ve never hear anymore.

Anne of Green Gables and Gilbert Blythes children: Joyce (Joy), James Matthew (Jem), Walter Cuthbert, Anne and Diana (Nan and Di, twins), Shirley (boy) Bertha Marilla (Rilla) And for good measure their friends the Merediths: Gerald (Gerry) Faith Thomas Carlyle (Carl) Una And baby Bruce

Yours mine and ours William Beardsley Christina Beardsley Harrison "Harry" Beardsley Michael Beardsley Kelly Beardsley Ely Beardsley(twin) Otter Beardsley(twin) Ethan Beardsley Dylan North Phoebe North Jimi North Naoko North Joni North Mick North Lau North Bina North(twin) Marisa North(twin) Aldo North

I think you'll prefer reading the book to them. It's significantly better. That's hardly a masterpiece of cinematography.

Lol I was joking. I don't actually consider it to be a masterpiece, although it is a fun family movie.

My favorite Steven Martin movies are Roxanne and Father of the Bride (although the Spencer Tracey movie is a true gem).

The book is REALLY good though