Title: "What's in a Name?"

Spoilers: "An Unearthly Child" (the very first Doctor Who episode from 1963)

Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who and am not making any money from this fanfic. Just borrowing the characters to play with.


The Doctor was working on some calibrations at the TARDIS console when Donna entered the control room, their four month old daughter in her arms.

"What's her name going to be?" Donna asked out of the blue.

The Time Lord's expression was a mix of surprise and confusion. "Uh, Donna, I thought we decided on Charlotte Elizabeth before she was born. I don't think it's a good idea to change her name at this point. She might get a complex or something."

Donna rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. "Not her given name, you dunce. Her family name."

"Doesn't need one," was the Doctor's answer. "But if we go somewhere where she absolutely has to have one, she can use yours." Thinking that settled the matter, he started to fiddle again with some knobs and buttons on the console.

"No," Donna insisted. "That'll make it sound like I'm a single mum who doesn't know who the father is."

Now the Doctor sighed, knowing Donna wasn't going to let this drop anytime soon. He walked over to his frowning wife and cooing baby daughter and gave each of them a kiss. "We both know that's not true," he tried to appease her. "And anyone else whose opinion matters to us knows we took the traditional path that led to Charlotte's creation. Like the children's song - 'First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the Doctor with the baby carriage.'"

Donna wasn't to be dissuaded. "I still think she needs a family name."

"Well, I use 'Smith' sometimes when I need a name on Earth," the Doctor contemplated. "Charlotte Elizabeth Smith. Sounds good to me." He turned around to try and finish what he was doing. "So that's settled. After I finish these calibrations, how would . . . "

"No."

The Doctor could feel a headache coming on. "What do you mean, 'no'? What's wrong with 'Smith'? Sarah Jane and Mickey have lived with it for all their lives and seem to have managed quite nicely."

"No offense to them, but Smith is too common," Donna argued. "Our daughter deserves something distinctive, something meaningful."

Distinctive and meaningful, the Doctor thought. Then the perfect name suddenly popped into his head. Why didn't I think of that before? It's not too common and there is a family connection, of a sort.

He then made his suggestion to Donna. She already knew about his stay in England during the early 1960's and his granddaughter attending school during that time. The Doctor was tremendously relieved that Donna was very enthusiastic about the name.

The Doctor took his baby daughter in his arms and declared, "Charlotte Elizabeth Foreman, it is, then."

The End