Poll: Do you like your name?

[astrid]

The response recommending a book by Astrid Lindgren made me wonder.....how do you feel about your own first name?

 

I love mine, always have, even though it was always a big "different." People seem to remember it, (or they call me "Ingrid", which is close, I guess!) and I've always been so proud of my Swedish heritage. I'm glad my parents chose this name for me.

 

How do the rest of you feel? Did your name choice (or your DH's) influence your name choices for your children?

 

Just wondering today.....

[Rich with Kids]

My family is Swedish, as well. I love my maiden name. I like my first name, although it's misspelled all the time. I got a lot of "Katie" and "Kathy". I wanted to name my son Swan after my great-grandfather, but he was a big A-hole, so I thought better of it.

 

Katy

[lynn]

I never liked my name and still don't that's why I use my middle name whenever I can. It could have been worse my mother let my Nana choose my name. I learned to live with it of course but hated it growing up with all the Brenda's, Michelle's and Cathy's now those were nice names

[amy g.]

I'm not crazy about Amy, but I've always gone by my middle name, Genevieve, in real life.

 

I like that Genevieve was still unusual when I was growing up. I think it is getting popular now.

[OnTheBrink]

I abhor my first name, so I haven't gone by it since I was 8. My mother picked it and I often wonder what the heck she was thinking. My dad picked my middle name and it's just fine, despite there being so many others with the same name.

[Crissy]

I love it. Not so much for the name itself, but because my name, Christina Marie, has been my mother's favorite name as far back as she can remember.

[Andie]

I wanted to name my son Swan after my great-grandfather, but he was a big A-hole, so I thought better of it.

 

Katy

 

 

We had to pass on a few good names for the same reason!:lol:

[percytruffle]

Well, I grew up in a sea of Lisa Maries in the 60s and 70s, but I did still like my name. I figured I got off easy. My parents names were Myrtle and Elmer. :D Which were rather uncommon here at the time. (no offense to the Myrtle on the boards).

 

Dh's name is a bit unusual for someone in our age group: Earle.

 

We chose first names for the dc that really resonated with us and then gave them middle names the same as our middle names. It was tough deciding on a boy's name. Having been a ps teacher, there were too many boy's names that already had negative connotations for me.

 

When I told my mom that we had chosen Julia as the name for our girl she was so happy. She said my dad would be pleased. When I asked why she told me it had been his mom's name and his grandmother's name. I never knew them. My parents were older and my dad's mom had died young of a brain hemorrhage. I'm not even sure my mom met her. We thought it was really great that we had picked that name without even knowing the story. :)

[Just Me]

My given name was Susan Michelle. Never loved it. My mom's first choice was Jamie Lynn, but dad talked her out of it. I so wish I was Jamie Lynn.

[KidsHappen]

I always wanted something "different". This definitely affected the name choices I made for my dd. Three of my dd ended up with very unique names. With the other two I was trying for unique but they ended up being very common for their age groups anyhow. One of those two we got from Shakespeare. I gave them all fairly common middle names just in case they didn't like unusual when they were older.

[KidsHappen]

Well, I grew up in a sea of Lisa Maries in the 60s and 70s, but I did still like my name.

 

One of my best friend's name was Lisa Marie. I always thought it was really pretty.

[JenneinCA]

I don't mind my name. I just get tired of endlessly correcting the spelling. Jennefer - spelled with only e or Jenne spelled with an e on the end. No one gets it correct.

 

My kids have totally normal names spelled correctly!

[5wolfcubs]

My maiden name was a hard to spell/hard to pronounce German one -- so my parents wanted something simple & easy...I got Lee. I didn't like it. It wasn't feminine, it wasn't pretty. So in about 8th grade I started spelling it Leigh and continued to do so until after my first dd was born. I gave her a long, feminine name. And she never went by a nickname. I came to realize that my dd's name was important to me, just as my name was important to my parents! And so, I switched back to Lee and like it just fine! As a side note, my dd only writes her initials on papers. I'm guessing she'll give her children short, uni-sex names! :lol:

[nutmeg]

My first used to be rare, but I hear it more and more frequently. (Think Trading Spaces and Extreme Home Makeover). I gave my girls old-fashioned, easy to spell names.

[Old Dominion Heather]

Heather... meh. There are too many "Heathers" (Also, there was the movie, but I identified more with Winona Ryder's Character. Can't remember her name though.

 

Dh also has a common 70's name: Josh.

 

My sons all have more unusual names... not bizarre, but not mainstream either. They are variations on a theme. I like that their names have cool meanings, as opposed to mine. "Heath Dweller". :001_huh:

 

Edited to say: I used to think of new names for myself all the time. I wanted to be names Allison for a long time when I was a kid. Alice would have been ok. I would change it almost daily.

 

Today, you can call me Trinity. :D

[amyable]

Growing up I did not like my name much, but I have come to appreciate it more now. It means "beloved" and that helps me when I am feeling down about myself. Both my foster parents (who had me for 7 weeks) and my adoptive parents named me Amy without knowing about the other, so it must be meant to be! ;) (ETA: either that or it is just the case of it being so common that there were 5 of us Amy's in a 13 person class in my grad school, LOL :lol:)

[RebeccaC]

My name is OK :001_smile: I wish the spelling was with the kh. I really really perfer the Hebrew version of my name which is Rivkah and the name that I really really love was my dmil's name which was Nechama, the ch is pronouce as a h in the back of the throat sort of. The name means comfort and is take from the word used in this verse, Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. If I had to change my name I would change it to Nechama but Rebecca has kinda of grown on me.

[homewithtrinity]

I just learned to answer to every prounuciation of my name. Now I hated my last name growing up....Krebs. I was tease so very much.

[Andie]

Andrea. I think it's boring, and not particularly adult. Or maybe I've just never grown up, so I don't think my name has? :)

 

My middle name is Elaine, which I like very much. I lobbied to be called Lainey when I was little, but the parents wouldn't cooperate, and the school was even less willing to play along. Hmph.

 

It's probably for the best. Had I succeeded, we'd have two Elaines here, and folks would constantly be wondering if it was Wax-On Elaine or Wax-Off Elaine posting. :leaving:

[JFSinIL]

I detest my first name. but my dad gave it to me, so I do not want to change it. I just wish he'd picked something less dopey!

[nukeswife]

My given name is Kelly, I have no middle name so I was stuck with it. I like it ok but there were a lot of Kelly's in my grade growing up. I wanted my kids to have uncommon names but not "out there" names I think I did well with that. The biggest problem I had with mine was that the older generation would always ask me why my parents gave me a "man's name" My mom never knew men were named Kelly so she didn't think to give it the more feminine spelling of Kelley or Kelli. I usually just go by Kel which is what my parents called me unless I was in deep doo doo:tongue_smilie: I like Kel alot.

 

My dh is Matthew, he likes it fine.

 

Many say our oldest has an old fashioned name, I named him Everett after a character in a short lived TV show and we call him Ev most of the time. My dd is named Annika Clare and prefers to go by her full first and middle name, mostly because her middle name is after her great grandma Clara who she adores. My little guy is Lucas John and prefers to go by Luka which my oldest started calling him. I think our youngest has the most common out of the 3 kids but it's still pretty far down on the top 100 names list.

[elbac]

I like my name. However, it's not pronounced like it's spelled, so that can be a bit annoying, either having to correct pronunciation (if it's someone I likely won't interact with again, I generally don't bother) or having to tell how it is spelled - sometimes repeatedly because people assume a spelling, and don't actually listen.

 

From the first grade on, at the beginning of the school year, my classmates would correct the new teacher's mispronunciation of my name before I ever had the opportunity. I can only assume they all liked the fact that it made them feel "in the know."

 

Oh! I've also never met another me. But I know there are more out there, because I hear about them occasionally from other people. :D

[TravelingChris]

When my parent's named me, I had the same first and first middle name as my mother. They called me by a nickname which I didn't like. I ended up having banking problems because of the fact that my mom and I had the same name. When we moved to another area, I changed my name. I kept the same first name but changed the spelling and changed my middle name to Christina which is what I use. My mom was okay with it. Both my husband and I wanted only traditional types of names for our children and that is what they all have. Not traditional English names but traditional first names nonetheless. =

[Greta]

I would love my name if it was Astrid too! That is a beautiful name! I hated mine (Gretchen) as a kid, but as an adult I have just accepted it. It's fun when I meet German people, because it seems to forge this instant connection! But I've always been fond of M names. My favorite name in the world is Micheala (or Mikayla), and I wanted to name my dd that, but hubby didn't care for it (and dd says she likes her name better, so I guess it's good we chose what we did). I also like Miranda. And Megan. Don't know why, but I just feel like my name should start with an M! I've always thought that if I had to go into the witness protection program I would ask them to change my name to Michaela. :lol: (Can you tell I've watched too many soap operas and evening dramas in my life?)

[*anj*]

Never liked my name much. I always wanted something "different".

 

I think that "Kids Happen" is a pretty unique name. How much more different could you get? You're the only one I know with that name!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol::tongue_smilie:

[Audrey]

Nope. Never liked it much. I never knew anyone else with this name growing up. It's an old lady's name. Now that I'm in Canada, I've found that it is supposedly a popular Quebecer/francophone name. But, I detest the french pronunciation. Oh-dray. :blink: Yuck.

 

Hated my maiden name, too, but now I have a really pretty french last name, which does sound lovely. Just not the two together. Whatever. It's my name.

[BamaTanya]

I wanted something long and flowery and romantic, like "Juliet," lol. Or Cassandra or Vanessa. Something that sounded like a princess.

 

Of course, I endured 13 + years of mispronunciations and misspellings. My name was misspelled (TONYA) as often as not in yearbooks. And it is pronounced TAN-ya (not TAWN-ya). Good grief. The people who told me I pronounced my name wrong.

 

I wished it were TAWN-ya. Usually I was too timid to correct people, but it always bothered me. Especially when my name was announced for winning some honor, but mispronounced.

 

Why did my parents name me this when other people thought it should be pronounced differently. I often said, in my very best Southern drawl, "It's TAN-ya. My mama was from TEX-as."

 

I need to skip ahead because I could go on forever.

 

I like it fine, now. BUT I was determined to select names for my dc that were easy to pronounce and spell. (I didn't choose flowery names for my girls -- just went with classic and feminine. I got over the dramatic flair before they were born.)

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I've always loved my name. Both my sisters love their names as well, so I guess my parents did a good job. :)

 

I think Astrid is a great name!

 

I hope my three boys like their names as they get older. I one of those who likes unusual but not strange names. My boys have names that are meaningful to me, so I hope that will make a difference.

[amy g.]

My sister's name is Gretchen!

 

I love that name. She says that our names are the beginning of our sibling rivalry. She thought that fairy princesses were named Genevieve, and German Shepherds were named Gretchen.

 

She once said, "Who knows what kind of a person I could have been if I had a name with the soft G sound"

[Kathy in MD]

I just wish I'd switched to my "real" name instead of my nickname when I started working. Much more adult and business-like, regal even ;)

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

"Jennifer"....meh. Nuff said! That's why my screen name is "Just a Jen in MS".......just "another" Jen.:D

[Jenny in Atl]

BORING!

All three of them. My dh's are even worse, he can't stand his three either. I made sure to give my kids cool names, nothing too odd like Moon Unit or Peaches Honeyblossom but nicer than Jennifer Leslie or Allen Lamar :ack2:

[BamaTanya]

Dh has a VERY COMMON first name. I think there were 3 or 4 of them in his kindergarten class. So he started going by his middle name.

 

No bother, until you have bank accounts and other official paperwork. We get mail addressed to First Name - Last Name, Middle Name - Last Name, F.M. Last Name, F. Middle - Last Name, First - M. Last Name, and some combination of the first and middle names. Seriously. On some computer somewhere, they mistakenly put the two given names together as one. We've been getting mail addressed to that unknown person for years.

Yikes!

I never know which account is in which name. I sometimes wondered who I married, and I bet the postman wonders how many men live here!

[Mamagistra]

Meh. Debra is rather rare these days. I only wish my name was spelled Deborah because it seems much more exotic and special with those extra letters.

 

I'm so not a Debbie (except to JudoLops). :D Often I am Deb. Once in a while, I am Debbo. :D

 

My 99-year-old grandma called me Debbie Kay. My nephew calls me Debber. :tongue_smilie:

[Lorna in the boonies]

Hate it, hate it, hate it. I truly, honestly think it is the ugliest name in the English language (my sincere apologies to the other Lorna who posts here). I think it's so ugly that I'm embarrassed to introduce myself to people. I don't even like having to say it.

 

My name is my least favorite thing about me. It's just awful.

[JennifersLost]

I used to HATE mine - there were always so many Jennifers around.

 

But about 10 years ago I became best friends with another Jennifer, and suddenly it seemed like ALL my friends were named Jennifer, and together we made it incredibly COOL to be a Jennifer.

 

I will never forget being at a party where another woman who was completely beautiful and successful in her own right said wistfully, "I wish I were a Jennifer."

 

Ever since then I've loved my name. The board names I use in various places all "play" on it or make fun of it, and it's kind of a running joke among my friends.

 

Yay, Jennifers!

[cin]

I *LOVE* Gretchen; wanted to name our dd that, but it didn't really go with our last name. (hard G, 2 syllables).

 

My name is Cynthia, which was somewhat popular in the 60's, but not extremely popular. I graduated with 2 others in a class of 300+. I go by Cindy, and it's ok. I don't hate it, but it's not something I love either.

[percytruffle]

I always thought I looked more like a Debbie than a Lisa when I was growing up. You know how you just picture a face that goes with a certain name. It just sort of feels right. Go figure.

[crazycoffeechic]

I like my name more now that I'm older. I used to go by Pam, a few years ago momma and I were talking and the topic of where I got my name came up. She named me Pamela, but my dad started calling me Pam. So after I found out that was what she originally wanted to call me, it just made my name a little more special to me. So now, that is what I go by.:001_smile:

[BamaTanya]

My name is OK :001_smile: I wish the spelling was with the kh. I really really perfer the Hebrew version of my name which is Rivkah and the name that I really really love was my dmil's name which was Nechama, the ch is pronouce as a h in the back of the throat sort of. The name means comfort and is take from the word used in this verse, Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. If I had to change my name I would change it to Nechama but Rebecca has kinda of grown on me.

 

It's my mother's. Dh and I talked about "Rebecca" through three little boys. Lol. My brother and his wife had a girl and named here "Rebekah."

 

I'm glad someone got Mom's name, but I kind of wished they'd kept the spelling the same. Funny, isn't it? :001_smile:

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

BORING!

All three of them. My dh's are even worse, he can't stand his three either. I made sure to give my kids cool names, nothing too odd like Moon Unit or Peaches Honeyblossom but nicer than Jennifer Leslie or Allen Lamar :ack2:

 

So do you go by Jenny or Jennifer in real life? I was "Jenny" until about 3rd grade when I thought it sounded too babyish and chose the more "sophisticated" Jennifer.:lol: Now I wish I had stuck with Jenny. It's cute and not as common! My aunt is the only one that still calls me Jenny and it takes me back to my childhood every time!

[percytruffle]

I think your name is beautiful!

 

Lorna

[BamaTanya]

 

When I told my mom that we had chosen Julia as the name for our girl she was so happy. She said my dad would be pleased. When I asked why she told me it had been his mom's name and his grandmother's name. I never knew them. My parents were older and my dad's mom had died young of a brain hemorrhage. I'm not even sure my mom met her. We thought it was really great that we had picked that name without even knowing the story. :)

 

Glad you shared that story. And it's a lovely name.

[Elm in NJ]

I like it just fine although people having difficulty pronouncing it. My parents were being 'smart' :D and combined both their names.

My dad is Elmsley and my mom is Beryl, so Elmeryl is my name.

 

My other two names I am not so keen on. I would have liked an African name even though my mom has one, I wasn't given one. So I am stuck with Alicia (from paternal grandma) and Lisette(from maternal).

 

Elmeryl

[elegantlion]

My name is Paula Ann and I don't like it. As a child you could never have a proper nickname and all my friends could. My middle name comes from an aunt named Annette, I wish that had been my middle name, Ann is too much like And to me.

 

As an adult I've gotten used to it. My dh has many other names for me now, if he calls me Paula, he's mad at me about something.

[Greta]

She thought that fairy princesses were named Genevieve, and German Shepherds were named Gretchen.

 

And I always thought it sounded like a name for a really grouchy grumpy (notice the gr pattern here!) old woman, and I couldn't understand why my Mom would have chosen it for a sweet little girl. Sigh . . . Poor me. :nopity:

 

:D But I am glad you like the name. My hubby and friends seem to like it (or at least the ones who don't have kept that to themselves!). Tell your sis that a Gretchen in Albuquerque says hi!

[Amy in Orlando]

My given name is Amy Jo. I grew convinced my mother was insane AND mean. I mostly go by Amy and don't hate it as much now.

[KidsHappen]

I think that "Kids Happen" is a pretty unique name. How much more different could you get? You're the only one I know with that name!

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol::tongue_smilie:

 

 

:lol: I feel more like KidsHappen than like my real name.

[Jill- OK]

Did your name choice (or your DH's) influence your name choices for your children?

 

Just wondering today.....

 

My dh knocked down all sorts of suggestions that I had, lol, and our children would have had much more interesting and unique names if I'd had my way. :)

 

But, as it stands, they have fairly simple, and/or classic names...which suits me just as well.

 

I know a few other "Jills" in real life, but it's not so common that it makes me dislike it. It's short, sweet, folks like to say it, and it's very conducive to the adding of goofy nicknames ("Jill-Bell!"..."Hey, Jilly-Willy!"...etc.) which makes it perfect for me. :)

[Sena]

I like my name now, but I hated Sena when I was younger. My dad is Norwegian and I'm named after his grandmother. Her name was Hunsena - thank goodness they didn't name me that!