Poll: Do you like your name?

[Chris in VA]

We are reading Anne of Green Gables, and just came to the part where she asked Marilla to call her Cordelia. I've always thought that was pretty funny!

 

I like Christine. I never hear it, tho.

[nmoira]

Love mine.

[kat19]

I have never hated my name..Kristy Ann.. Pretty simple

I hear the name a lot but you can spell it different ways :001_smile:

 

Dh is very very common, Daniel(he goes by Dan)

 

I never heard dds name much but now I think it's becoming more common

[Storm Bay]

Hated it growing up. Karin with the spelling Karen was just SO popular during the baby-boomer years that there were tons of them. In one class there were 3 of us and the teacher called us by our first names and the first letter of our surname. Guess whose maiden name starts with a P?

 

While I like the name just fine now, I have this real problem--I do not think it's my name if it's spelled KarEn, even though I'll answer to 3 different pronunciations just fine. This board is great because people spell it the way it appears. But I'm very, very glad to have dropped my maiden name because it's not phonetic in any language I know of due to various spelling changes over 250 years. Not only could no one pronounce it when they read it first even though it's really easy to say if you hear it first, hardly anyone could remember to spell it correctly. And even though I completely understood that it was difficult, I couldn't stand all the mistakes (perhaps because I used to be such a fabulous speller back then.) Silly, aren't I? With dh's name there are very few spelling and pronunciations variations and it doesn't really bother me because it's not inherently my name.

 

As for my kids, had I the choice they would have all had exotic, fabulous names as opposed to my plain ordinary name, but dh has a very unusual name, so it was pure compromise when it came to naming our dc.

[Storm Bay]

We are reading Anne of Green Gables, and just came to the part where she asked Marilla to call her Cordelia. I've always thought that was pretty funny!

 

I like Christine. I never hear it, tho.

 

Yes, and there is a forum member here whose moniker is "Call me Cordelia"--I guess she's quite the Anne fan.

[Kate CA]

Yes, I do like my name. I have been Kate since freshman year in high school. I was Katie before that - that was OK. My real name is Kathleen and I like it though I never go by that. I love the Wiki on it:

 

Kathleen is a female given name, used in English and Irish-language communities. Sometimes spelled Cathleen, it is an anglicized form of Caitlín, the Irish form of Cateline, which was the Old French form of Catherine. It ultimately derives from the Greek name Aikaterine, the meaning of which is highly debated.

 

Since I love history it fits me pretty nicely. :)

[Jen in NY]

I'm pretty sure it was written about my elementary school ;)

 

I would exchange "Jennifer" for my great-aunt's "Genevieve" in a heartbeat - I'd still be "Jen," but not like everyone else and their step-sister, KWIM?

[genie]

I hated my birth name so much that I had it legally changed as soon as I turned 18!!

 

I remember being in first grade, and a new kindergarten student at my school had the same name, and I just felt awful for her!

 

The last straw for me was that this really nice guy made the mistake of calling me the shortened version of my birth name (which is even worse) and I jumped his case. Then I felt so bad about it. I realized then that I had a problem, and it had to be fixed. My mom, to this day, doesn't know why the heck they named me it in the first place.

[3lilreds in NC]

I think mine's OK. Bethany is not, to me, an astonishingly pretty name, but I go by Beth and I like that better. I like my middle name, Lynne, because it's my mom's with an "e" at the end, and my sister has the same middle name. So does my cousin (whose first name is Tiffany - not my first choice of names), my oldest daughter and my niece. Except my sister had to go and spell it WRONG (Lyn). Drives me nuts.

 

I gave my girls old-fashioned names that I thought were beautiful: Emma and Abigail. Actually, Abbie was supposed to be Lila, but my dh doesn't like that name at all. I tried to sneak it back in if Schmooey had turned out to be a girl, but 6 years later he still didn't like it. Good thing he was a boy, I guess!:D Had I known how popular their names were going to be, I would definitely have reconsidered.

 

Schmooey's name is Isaac because we truly believe that's what God named him. I had considered Zachary, and we do call him zacky anyway, but Isaac is official - and he does bring us so much laughter, and joy. It's perfect for him.

 

If we get to adopt, I tell my kids we'll need to add Oliver and Ursula to finish out the vowel names, LOL.

[Jenny in Atl]

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!

 

I go by Jenny. I always hated Jen, but now I don't mind it. If someone calls me Jennifer, I always figure I have done something wrong and I'm in trouble. :001_unsure:

[Jennifer on Earth]

I don't especially love or hate my name. I feel too close to it to know what it sounds like to other ears, kwim? My mother swears she didn't know half of American moms were naming their girls "Jennifer", but they certainly were. Maybe there was just some sort of group think thing going on at the time (late 60's, early 70's). Anyway, the only major problem I have with my name is how common it is for my age group. There are going to be lots of Jennifers in the nursing homes in 50 or so years. Kind of like the Ethels and Mabels of today. :001_smile:

[Parrothead]

I've never been overly fond of my given name, hence the nickname Chucki.

[PrairieAir]

I don't really like being just another Jennifer, but I've learned to deal with it. It's better than what my mom got--Mary with no middle name. I thought I would be so much more original in coming up with my kids' names, but they really are pretty ordinary.

 

I didn't want to pick Joshua because it was the most popular name we thought of, but it fit so well with Caleb that we had to use it. We gave him the middle name Lee to honor FIL whose middle name is Lee (wasn't gonna use Terry). Caleb's middle name is Michael after my dad and it seemed right to do something similar for dh's dad. We found out later that FIL has always hated his middle name. It seems there was some sort of knock off Barbie named Terry Lee and he got made fun of for his name a lot.

 

I never liked the name Naomi much either. I thought it was an old lady name. We named dd after a good friend from high school who died a few days before we found out I was pregnant. It just suddenly seemed right and I like the name now. It is the least common of the four.

[dixiemaiden]

I like my name well enough. It wouldn't be the name I would choose if I could have chosen my own name but I don't dislike it.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I like my name. There seems to be a lot of Pamelas now, but not so many that there were 3 in any of my classes or anything.

[Pamela H in Texas]

BTW, I do wish we had gone with Benjamin Tyler for my son's given name. I've wished it since about the day he was born. My mom says the next baby I have (not likely) or one of my kids' have has to be named Benjamin. Now I have other names I like though. But I REALLY wish Tyler would have been named Benjamin Tyler from the get go (though we'd still use Tyler as his daily name).

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

I'm pretty sure it was written about my elementary school ;)

 

I would exchange "Jennifer" for my great-aunt's "Genevieve" in a heartbeat - I'd still be "Jen," but not like everyone else and their step-sister, KWIM?

 

Me too!!! In fact, my dh calls me Genevieve sometimes and I love it!!!:lol:

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

I hated my birth name so much that I had it legally changed as soon as I turned 18!!

 

I remember being in first grade, and a new kindergarten student at my school had the same name, and I just felt awful for her!

 

The last straw for me was that this really nice guy made the mistake of calling me the shortened version of my birth name (which is even worse) and I jumped his case. Then I felt so bad about it. I realized then that I had a problem, and it had to be fixed. My mom, to this day, doesn't know why the heck they named me it in the first place.

 

So how in the world did you choose a brand new name?? It seems like such a hard decision to make for oneself!! I would still be trying to decide if I had wanted to change mine!! :lol:

[LaMere Academy]

I like it ok I guess.

It's Rebecca, but I go by Becky, which I'm not crazy about.

[genie]

So how in the world did you choose a brand new name??

 

It was actually easier than I expected. I got a book of baby names and went through and picked out about twenty that I liked. Then I passed the list around to my friends and fellow students and had them pick their favorite that they thought fit me. I picked my favorite from their top three. :D

[chiguirre]

I like Julianna and it's served me well. As a kid I went by Julie and my mom and sister still call me that. My dad's always called me Julika, even when I was mortified by it as a teenager (and honestly, what was he thinking calling me that in front of a bunch of tweens???) It has the advantage of being fairly normal in lots of languages and it sounds good even if the J is pronounced like H or Y.

 

I was pretty worried about tagging my dd with Berenice. She's the 5th in a chain of Bernices and Juliannas, but it's still a pretty unusual name to actually name a small, defenseless baby. I'm glad I found a cute little girl nickname to go with it (Berry) so she won't be traumatized as a kid, or at least I hope she won't.

 

Dh's doesn't particularly like his name but it's not horrible either, just a little off the beaten track (Rodolfo). The boys have common (easily in the top 10) Spanish names. They get butchered in English sometimes, but that's why they've got nicknames that are easy to pronounce and spell (Rodrigo is Rory and Andres is Andy).

[Kathleen in VA]

I was Kathy through age 17. When I came through the door of my freshman dorm room my two roommates said in unison, "Oh, you must be Kathleen." I hesitated just a second and then nodded and said, "Yes, I am Kathleen." I've never turned back.

 

There were at least five Kathy's in my senior class of 100 - three of us were on the cheerleading squad for crying out loud. It was worse schoolwide, of course. If someone said, "Kathy!" in the cafeteria or library, twenty heads turned around.

 

Even today I cringe when someone calls me Kathy. It annoys me when someone introduces me to someone else as Kathleen and then the newcomer immediately begins calling me Kathy. Would you immediately start calling a Debra, Debbie? or an Elizabeth, Betsy? or a Christina, Chrissy?

 

Anyway, no offense to anyone else named Kathy here. As I've gotten older I appreciate that there is nothing inherently "wrong" with the name - it was just so overused in my generation. I felt like my parents might as well have named me "girl" or "female."

 

I've actually had people comment and say, "Kathleen is just so hard to say. I'm not sure I can do it." Yes, I realize that an "l" after the "th" sound is a mouthful, but c'mon. Would you say that about anyone else's name? I mean, my name is my name.

 

Do you sense the bitterness?:001_smile: Actually, I'm just glad my parent's didn't name me after my grandma - Zelda (who always wished her name was Alice). Although, for some reason my mom consistently called me "Mildred" when she got older. Mildred was my great-aunt's name. Go figure.

 

Kathleen is better than Kathy, but I really liked the name Emily as I was growing up - read it in a book - so that was what I named my daughter in 1992. Now I have dubbed her with a name as popular as Kathy was in my day. Sorry about that, hun.

 

Kathleen in VA

www.homeschoolblogger.com/lavendersblue

[Andie]

It was actually easier than I expected. I got a book of baby names and went through and picked out about twenty that I liked. Then I passed the list around to my friends and fellow students and had them pick their favorite that they thought fit me. I picked my favorite from their top three. :D

 

 

What would we have to do to find out the original name? Will you share?:bigear:

[genie]

What would we have to do to find out the original name? Will you share?:bigear:

 

Well, put it this way... the only time I have said that name to anyone in many many years was during a deposition last week for a lawsuit. I was under oath, so I had to. :cursing: And I shuddered as I said it. So it will probably be another ten or so years before I can muster the strength to say (or type) it again. Sorry. :o

 

I guess me bringing it up and then not telling is like mentioning a recipe and not sharing it, eh? I will say, in the five or so years that I have been reading this board, I don't remember seeing anyone post with it as a name. It's one of those that you usually only hear eighty-year-old women named.

[Mamagistra]

Well, put it this way... the only time I have said that name to anyone in many many years was during a deposition last week for a lawsuit. I was under oath, so I had to. :cursing: And I shuddered as I said it. So it will probably be another ten or so years before I can muster the strength to say (or type) it again. Sorry. :o

 

I guess me bringing it up and then not telling is like mentioning a recipe and not sharing it, eh? I will say, in the five or so years that I have been reading this board, I don't remember seeing anyone post with it as a name. It's one of those that you usually only hear eighty-year-old women named.

 

Can we guess? :D Is it Gertrude? Harriet? Ethel? Beulah? (I love all of those, by the way!) :tongue_smilie:

[NHDeb]

My name is not unusual, but the format is fairly uncommon. I'm "Debra-Lyn", and hyphenated names were NOT the norm in New England while I was growing up. I actually was sent to the Principal's office when I was a 3rd grader because I refused to put "L" in the middle initial box on the standardized testing form. I do not have a middle name.

 

My dc all have fairly common first names and their middle names are all family names with emotional attachments. Oldest ds (age 17) legally changed his name last year to take my husband's last name and chose to take his grandfather's middle name also. Youngest ds (8) has DH's first name for his middle name and my dd (10) actually has the same middle name that BOTH her grandmothers have - which makes it extra special.

[percytruffle]

Can we guess? :D Is it Gertrude? Harriet? Ethel? Beulah? (I love all of those, by the way!) :tongue_smilie:

 

 

...Maude, Madge, Bertha, Agnes, Germania (a neighbor), Viola Daisy (my grandmother), Henrietta, Floyd? :tongue_smilie:

[percytruffle]

I just think names are so cool, especially the unusual ones! If we guess, will you tell us we got it right?!

[Kathleen in VA]

I'm guessing Zelda? or maybe Esmerelda? Edna? Lulu? Bertha? Mildred? Opal? Ethel?

 

Actually, all those names are kind of normal in their own way. It must be something off the charts.

[Kay in Cal]

My first name is actually "Kirsten"... but I've gone by Kay since high school. Growing up I didn't really like it, mostly because everyone called me "Kristin" or "Christine" or "Kersten". I can't tell you the number of times I had to say "Kir, it rhymes with ear." So I wasn't a fan, and sort of accidentally slipped into being called Kay due to a mix-up with a nametag. Kay is my middle name, and also my mom's middle name, and she goes by Kay as well.

 

These days I think I actually prefer Kirsten, but no one calls me that except my dad and a few older relatives I never see. Everyone else has called me Kay for 20 plus years, so there just is no going back. And my poor dh--it would blow his mind if I wasn't Kay anymore! It was hard enough when I changed my last name to his after 9 years of marriage--right before our oldest son was born. So I'm OK with my everyday name of Kay, but I do kind of long to return to my childhood name of Kirsten...

[Kate CA]

I am a Kathleen too. I posted down below the history of the name. I love it. I don't go by Kathleen except for formal things like check signing, contracts, etc., but I have always loved my name. It is less common than Katherine though I love that too. We used both of those as middle names for two of our girls.

 

I have a funny "Kathy" story too. In first grade (when I was going by Kathleen) my teacher called me Kathy. I had never been called that before and I was quite puzzled about it. My mom said, "You tell her your name is Kathleen!" So I did and it never happened again. :) I morphed into Katie and then eventually to Kate--which I eventually stuck with.

 

We too named not one, but all five of our dc with pretty common names though at the time not all of them were. I don't really care. They are lovely names (Hannah, Abigail, John Henry, Elizabeth, and Emma) and they like them. I don't mind that other children have them too. To me it reflects the beauty of the names because others chose them as well. :)

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

It was actually easier than I expected. I got a book of baby names and went through and picked out about twenty that I liked. Then I passed the list around to my friends and fellow students and had them pick their favorite that they thought fit me. I picked my favorite from their top three. :D

 

Cool! :thumbup1: That's what I would have had to do as well!

[Storm Bay]

Well, put it this way... the only time I have said that name to anyone in many many years was during a deposition last week for a lawsuit. I was under oath, so I had to. :cursing: And I shuddered as I said it. So it will probably be another ten or so years before I can muster the strength to say (or type) it again. Sorry. :o

 

I guess me bringing it up and then not telling is like mentioning a recipe and not sharing it, eh? I will say, in the five or so years that I have been reading this board, I don't remember seeing anyone post with it as a name. It's one of those that you usually only hear eighty-year-old women named.

 

Interesting! I've always thought my mother had almost the worst name anyone can have, but it's very, very rare, and the only other women I've heard of with that name are in her family tree (in Iceland the eldest daughter is named after her grandmother and the eldest son after his grandfather--at least that was the practice for centuries, although it may have changed in the past 50 years or something.) When I googled it the only reference I found was to some male mythological figure, but I was surprised as it usually shows up in a different form. I understand if you won't type it, but I just can't imagine a name much worse than my mother's, but to type hers is TMI as I don't know if there are any other living women with that name or not. She goes by a nickname, even when signing cheques (Canadian for checks), that she's used since high school.

[summer]

I like my name. I cannot think of a different name I would rather have..other than the one I gave my daughter. She has a name I love. Brittany Louise.

[chickenpatty]

I like mine most of the time. It's a little more common these days than when I was born in the '70's.

 

One of my professors mistakenly called me Cherokee (a couple of times) and one of dh's bosses called me Iroquois. :glare:

 

I do have a teency bit of Native American in me, but not enough to warrant my name. My mom saw in on a Chevy pickup and liked it. My family (including dh) has always called me Chey for short.

 

Chickenpatty (a.k.a. Cheyenne)

[Parabola]

My name...hmm, what can I say?

 

I went by Sheri the first 26 years of my life. Soooooo not me. But by the time I learned that I had a longer "real" name it was too late to change it. Not only that but in my class of 50 ppl, there were 4 Sheris, various spelling.

 

I "changed" my name a lot growing up. I was Julian for a little while in high school. And I weny by Ally for awhile in college.

 

When I got married, one of DH's brothers was married to a Shari, and the family called her "the bad Shari", which while accurate, was still enough to get me to start everyone calling me Sheralyn.

The only trouble I have with Sheralyn is that sometimes people want to stress the lyn part, then it comes out sounding like some southern mama type name. Which would be fine if I fit the descript, but I don't.

 

So now if there's a question, I just tell them its Sheralyn, rhymes with Marilyn. Which was cool for awhile when I was into Marilyn Manson, before he went pimp.

 

I've always like unusual names, so thats what my kids got.

 

Kyden Szandor came because I wanted a name with the "ky" in it, but I hate the name Kyle and thats the only one I found. So I made one up.

 

Aralia Brynn came because I worked at a greenhouse for awhile, and there's a genus of plants called Aralia, and I thought that was a beautiful name. Seven years later I had a daughter I could use it on.

 

Zaith Malloc came actually when I was pg with Kyden. In searching for a name for him, one night I had a dream that there was this hand writing in the dust on top of a chest of drawers. It wrote Z then A then I and then I woke up and said "Zaith!! Thats a GREAT name!" But it didn't work with the middle name we were determined to use (Szandor), too much zzzzzzzz, so I saved it for when my second son was born. As for Malloc.....DH actually got this from a computer term, shorthand for Memory Allocation...malloc. Kinda odd, but it sounded neat so we appropriated it.

 

 

Now, there were a lot of people that talked about their names without saying what those names were!! I would really love to know some of them!!

[magic]

I wish it was spelled Rebekah but I still really like it. If it wasn't my name, I may have named my daughter Rebekah..

[Beth in Central TX]

I'm guessing Zelda? or maybe Esmerelda? Edna? Lulu? Bertha? Mildred? Opal? Ethel?

 

Actually, all those names are kind of normal in their own way. It must be something off the charts.

 

My Great-grandmother, my Grandmother, and my Mom all have the 1st name Bertha; they all go by their middle names too. Luckily, my mom broke the cycle, and I am just Beth. Of course, everyone thinks I'm an Elizabeth.

 

I thought it was an okay name growing up, with the exception that they all thought my "real" name was Elizabeth, but now there seem to be more Beths around. It's seems to be the more common nickname for Elizabeth nowadays too (when I was younger it seemed like Betsy was more common).

 

My grandmother passed away just after I graduated from high school, so my mom said if I ever had a girl, I should honor her by naming my daughter Bertha. I thought, "NO WAY!", but luckily, I ended up with 3 boys, so that argument never came up. Just for the record, my mom would have lost that battle; DH wouldn't even consider the name.

[mom2att]

My dad wanted to name be Barbara Lee.

My mom insisted that if I was to be Barbara, I would be Barbara Jo.

 

Thanks a lot, guys. At least they never called me Barbara, though I think my dad would have liked to. I've always been Barbie, which of course has it's own issues! I am most definitely not a Barbara, or a Barb, and I don't wish I had another name. I guess Barbie just fits me now.

[Kathleen in VA]

I morphed into Katie and then eventually to Kate--which I eventually stuck with.

 

I wish I had been called Kate from the beginning - I love that name. If only that had come to my mind when I went to college. Ah, well.

 

I remembered after I read your post that when I worked at a law firm in my 20's, one of the lawyers decided to call me "Kayleen" - said Kathleen was too hard to pronounce. He was a real jokester so I didn't mind that so much. Besides, it is kind of cute, too.

 

Kathleen in VA

www.homeschoolblogger.com/lavendersblue

[Momto5]

My first name is Waverley and I have always liked it. Waverley is a family name going back generations and when I was little I liked hearing about the other Waverleys.

 

Great thread.

[Kathleen in VA]

My dad wanted to name be Barbara Lee.

My mom insisted that if I was to be Barbara, I would be Barbara Jo.

 

I always thought the nickname Bobby for Barbara was cute. You could have been Bobby Jo like one of the sisters on Petticoat Junction:).

 

My mom's name was Barbara and my stepmom's is Barbra (like Streisand). I guess my dad liked the name :). Anyway, he called/calls them both Barbie. I think Barbie is completely cute, but I never cared for Barbara. Don't know why, really.

 

Kathleen in VA

www.homeschoolblogger.com/lavendersblue

[paula j]

My name is ok. Not saying I just love it mind you but when I consider the alternatives........ My dsil wanted my dm to name me Coral Dawn, My dm wanted to name me Astra Predita, she finally gave in to my db and ds who were just begging to name me and they named me Paula because Hey Hey Paula had just hit number 1 on the charts. My middle name, now that's another story, my ds named me after her boyfriend, yuck! Just glad his name wasn't Fred, or Chuck, or hey, she could have been dating the wonderful man she married, then my name would have been Paula Harry Potter!:lol::lol::lol:

[*anj*]

It's funny because I was always called "Angela" at home, my whole life. If a teacher called me "Angie" my mother told me to tell them that my name was "Angela," which I did. And to this day I do not like being called "Angie" and I can count on one hand the number of people who have gotten away with it. When I got to college people started calling me "Ang," which I like. IRL most of my close friends call me that. My dad even started calling me that.

[KidsHappen]

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:

 

 

I like the nickname Andie. Kinda cute and spunky. :)

[tbmoran]

Yes, I like my name, but it is misspelled a lot. But that really doesn't bother me that much.

[Vanna]

...I was 7yo old then:D.

 

I LOVE my name... and married the right guy too 'cause our family name begins with the same letter and has the same # of syllables so it's very musical.

 

My screen name comes from a nickname I got in high school when the tv gameshow Wheel of Fortune was very popular (is it still popular? I have no idea).

[April Showers]

I hated my name when I was a child, but now that I'm older I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. When I learned my father named me is when I started to like it more. My dad is a great man.

 

Adrienne

[TN Mama]

As a child I didn't like my first or middle name. Laura seemed so boring and you couldn't get any fun nicknames from Laura! I had friends who were born Elizabeth that could become Betsy, Beth, Liz, etc. And there were Margarets who were Meg, Maggie, and so on. And I was just Laura (snore). My middle name is a man's name and a family name. It annoyed me as a young person and I never used it. Of course as I got older I began to appreciate my name and then I got married and dropped my middle name. So I am Laura Common Surname Common Surname. Oh well :)

 

Both of my girls have traditional, family names and neither are overly common. I can't ever find anything with Claire's name on it which is surprising to me. Youngest dd also got my middle name passed down.

[Storm Bay]

. So I am Laura Common Surname Common Surname. Oh well :)

 

 

 

I love the name Laura. It was what my kid brother was to be named if he was a girl (back in the olden days when you didn't know if it was a boy or girl until a baby was born.) Without knowing this, my uncle named his youngest girl Laura a few years later. Same surname as we had.