What Dolly Parton & Carl Dean Would Have Named Their Daughter If They Had Kids

Dolly Parton gave a lot to children throughout her life, but she famously did not have any of her own. The country icon and her husband Carl Dean were married for nearly 60 years, and throughout that time, the couple often thought about what having kids would be like. In the end, Parton and Dean were happy that they never welcomed any of their own. If they did, though, they had a name all picked out. "If we'd had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla," Parton revealed in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. "You always wonder. My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like? Would they be tall because he's tall? Or would they be little squats like me?" 

In fact, as Parton confessed to Interview magazine, in 1984, the couple tried to get pregnant "for years." As the singer-songwriter shared, "When I was a girl and fooling around, I was scared to death I'd get pregnant, and then when I got married and wanted to have children, I couldn't have any." Ultimately, though, it all worked out for the best. As the "I Will Always Love You" hitmaker reasoned to The Guardian, "We talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn't meant to be. Now that we're older? We're glad." While she could have imagined being a mom, Parton felt it would have stopped her from accomplishing her dreams. "I would have been a great mother, I think," the Grammy winner asserted. However, as she pointed out, "I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would've felt guilty about that, if I'd have left them [to work]." As such, "I probably wouldn't have been a star."

Notably, if remaining childfree was the only way Dolly Parton could have the massive career she had this, in turn, gave the "9 to 5" hitmaker the money to help way more kids than she would have otherwise. Parton was known for her charitable endeavors, many of which benefited children. The Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library has provided kids with over 300 million books, and the Dolly Parton Scholarship helps Tennessee high schoolers achieve their dreams — and that's just scratching the surface. It's clear that Parton cared very deeply about children. And, beyond her philanthropy, Parton felt she had kids and grandkids even though they weren't her own. 

As the country icon professed to Interview magazine, "I am everybody's mother. I've raised five of my younger brothers and sisters, and now their kids call me Aunt Grannie. I'm like the grandma and the aunt." Alongside her nieces and nephews, there's also Parton's goddaughter Miley Cyrus, who described her "Aunt Dolly" as "an angel by my side" in a heartbreaking statement honoring the country icon. Ultimately, not having children gave Parton and Carl Dean the ability to give children better lives. 

Besides, as the two-time Oscar nominee explained to Rolling Stone, in 2003, "The older [Dean and I] get, the gladder we are that we don't have [kids] now, because we take care of a lot of other people's kids. We buy new cars for all the nieces and nephews that graduate, we send any to college that want to go." Not being a mom meant Parton could be a fairy godmother to so many. And, with that, she's left quite a legacy behind.