Do you like your name?

[TrixieB]

I like it, but not the way it's spelled because it seems too fussy to me.  I prefer the more common spelling.  So I used that as part of one dd's name and she told me she wished I'd spelled it the way mine is spelled. :001_rolleyes:

 

I am really glad that my parent who wanted to name me something else didn't get their way.  I would not have liked that name because it's way too prissy for my personality.  Or maybe I would now have a different personality if that were my name...?!

[TrixieB]

My mother's mom was named Martha Frances and she went by Fanny like your grandma.  My mom's name was Frances Roberta and went by Frannie.  My middle name was Frances - was because I don't use it anymore.  That tradition putting Frances somewhere in the name had to stop. 

 

I do like my first name.  My dad named me after Susan Hayward if anybody remembers that actress.  The other choice was Beverly Jean, so I'm pleased with their final choice.

 

 

I like Frances!  I think I would choose Frankie for a nickname. :)

[Greta]

No. I've always disliked it. It's Gretchen. As a kid I thought it sounded like a grumpy old woman's name, and I wanted a happy, pretty, young girl name. It's the "retch" sound that I hate. It wasn't until I was 30-ish that I learned that Greta is the more common form, and I like it better, so I wish I had known sooner. It's too late now -- everyone knows me as Gretchen.

 

I've anyway loved M names: Michaela, Miranda, Megan, etc. I asked my daughter once if she didn't know me, what name she thought would fit me. She said Emma. I like it. Still has that m sound, so I guess that's why I'd prefer it. M's are just prettier than G's. :)

[Greta]

I like Frances! I think I would choose Frankie for a nickname. :)

I had an aunt Frances who went by Frankie, and she was the best. I miss her. The name has a very positive connotation to me - warm, friendly, generous. (All descriptions of her.)

[Heatherwith4]

Yes, but there was no shortage of Heathers at my school. So I was never just called Heather, but instead was called Heather <insert maiden name>. I hate my maiden name. I just wanted to be Heather! :)

 

I love my middle name, which is old-fashioned and Southern sounding, and I like my extremely common married name that just sounds so much better than that darn maiden name.

[LucyStoner]

Yes. Katies are rad people. IME. :P

 

Katie is a nickname and I like the longer version of my name just fine. It looks great on a business card. :)

[foxbridgeacademy]

No. I've always disliked it. It's Gretchen. As a kid I thought it sounded like a grumpy old woman's name, and I wanted a happy, pretty, young girl name. It's the "retch" sound that I hate. It wasn't until I was 30-ish that I learned that Greta is the more common form, and I like it better, so I wish I had known sooner. It's too late now -- everyone knows me as Gretchen.

 

I've anyway loved M names: Michaela, Miranda, Megan, etc. I asked my daughter once if she didn't know me, what name she thought would fit me. She said Emma. I like it. Still has that m sound, so I guess that's why I'd prefer it. M's are just prettier than G's. :)

I knew a Gretchen who was several years older then me, she was IMO at the time (I was 8) the prettiest, nicest person I knew and I wanted to grow up to be just like her.

 

I think our interpretation of names are often affected, in our minds, by the people we know.  So if Sarah was a mean girl in Jr high you're unlikely to have warm fuzzy feelings about the name Sarah.

[Hunter's Moon]

Meh. 

 

I've grown used to it, and I do like the meaning. But I've never enjoyed having a trendy 80s/90s name. 

[CAMom]

No. I don't. Not at all and never have.

 

But, I've never felt at liberty to say anything about it since I was named after my dad. Even now that he's gone, I feel like it would dishonor his memory to say I hate my name. I was a Daddy's girl and I never would have ever said anything to hurt my dad's feelings.

 

I hate the sound of it and I hate always having to spell it out. 

 

My maiden name was ridiculously embarrassing so having such an uncommon first name with it was just tough.

 

I wish I had a different name.

[Excelsior! Academy]

No.  I guess it's grown on me and I'm used to it, but I don't like it.  In hindsight I really wish I had started using my middle name when I was a little kid.

 

This.

[Excelsior! Academy]

I like my name when pronounced properly. Everyone here seems to say hu-LEEna, whereas I'm used to the pronunciation helen-uh.

 

My Grandmother's name was Helena - He (short e, not long) - LEE - na.  I could see why it would bug you if it wasn't your name, but I've always thought her pronunciation was quite beautiful. 

[daffodil]

No, I hate it. It's a weird spelling of a name that was extremely popular in the 80s.

[Guest]

I used to hate my name, Taryl Jordan _______. It was so unisex it was obnoxious, Jordan was faily unusual for a girl at the time, too. My mom had a very common name and hated it, so she went way, way the other direction with me. Now, I tolerate it and it's sort of growing on me again. It suits me very well, it just gets butchered. And with a weird, German last name now, no one ever spells either name right. At least I had a typical scotch surname prior to marriage!

[VeganCupcake]

I think mine's pretty great, though I didn't always like it too much as a kid. I wished for something more androgynous as a child.

[LMD]

I quite like mine.  It was very popular when I was born but mine is spelled differently which I liked.  The normal spelling just isn't my name, even if they are pronounced the same, though it doesn't bother me if people misspell it.  I like my middle name and maiden name too.  I'm kinda sad that I don't get to use my maiden name any more but I don't dislike my married name.

[Sarah CB]

I like my name when pronounced properly. Everyone here seems to say hu-LEEna, whereas I'm used to the pronunciation helen-uh.

 

Who says helen-uh?  That's so weird.  

 

I love my first and middle name.  The only thing that bugs me is when people try to spell my name S-a-r-h-a instead of Sarah.  How is that even possible?  And yet, it keeps happening.

 

I also love my middle name - Christine.  My sister's middle name is Holbrook and she was teased quite a lot as a kid.  It made me very grateful to have a lovely and normal middle name.  

 

I didn't like my last name growing up.  It rhymed with all kinds of funny things so I got teased a lot.  I was so happy to marry someone with a very normal and nice sounding last name so now I can love my whole name.

[Heidi]

It's ok, it's grown on me. My first, middle, and last names are all short, and I don't like that. I think that's why I named all of my children fairly long names.

[ktgrok]

My name is Katie, and I love my name. As a kid it was a popular name, there were always a few of them in my grade if not my class, so I often went by Katie Firstinitial of Lastname. I didn't really mind. And as I got older there were less of us. I did have a teacher give me grief becuase she said my name couldn't be Katie, it had to be Kathryn or something, and it's not. But whatever. My parents didn't want me to have a nickname, they wanted me to have my own name. I did go through a phase where I wanted to be called Kate but it never stuck. Then decades later I started a job and people did start calling me Kate, as a nickname I guess. That was fine too. Oh, and I had some relatives that called me Katie Middle Name. Loved that too.

Honestly, I just love my name. I hope I have at least one grandchild that gets it, because it is a great name. 

 

Now, my maiden name was hard to pronounce, a german name, and I didn't like that. Was happy to get married and change it. 

 

 

[Sarah CB]

 I did have a teacher give me grief becuase she said my name couldn't be Katie, it had to be Kathryn or something, and it's not. But whatever. My parents didn't want me to have a nickname, they wanted me to have my own name. 

 

I had a friend growing up whose name was Angie.  Not Angela.  I thought it made a lot of sense.  So, my eldest is Abbie.  Not Abigail.  Which is lucky because she really hates the name Abigail.  She's quite happy with Abbie.

[kewb]

My name is Katie, and I love my name. As a kid it was a popular name, there were always a few of them in my grade if not my class, so I often went by Katie Firstinitial of Lastname. I didn't really mind. And as I got older there were less of us. I did have a teacher give me grief becuase she said my name couldn't be Katie, it had to be Kathryn or something, and it's not. But whatever. My parents didn't want me to have a nickname, they wanted me to have my own name.

As someone whose name is Kathy. Not Katherine or Kathleen, and yes, I am sure it is not short for anything, I can relate to the teacher issue. My parents didn't like nicknames so they gave us nicknames doe names.

 

As a kid I hated my name. I wanted my name to be something interesting, such as Julie only spelled like jewely or Sandra.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I have never been fond of my name, it feels terribly serious to me. I was named for my grandmother and I am happy to have that connection now, but didn't like it when I was a child. I also have great admiration for at least one famous person with my name, but as a child it was either are you blind and deaf or you definitely aren't the most beautiful woman in the world.

[mamaraby]

Nope. It's an incredibly common name so there were always lots of other people with the same name both at school and when I was working. I don't like the long form of it and was always annoyed at having to tell the teacher to call me by the short version. I don't care for my middle name, either.

 

I wish I had named my son what ended up his middle name instead of not wanting to "copy" a family we knew once and haven't seen again. It wouldn't have been copying b/c it was a family name, but it just felt so awkward. Still regret that, but the kid likes his name so, oh well.

 

Two of my three kids have names that don't shorten owing to my annoyance with my own name.

[Greta]

Who says helen-uh? That's so weird.

I thought that was the standard and more common pronunciation! Guess I was wrong. I also think it's very pretty said that way.

[Greta]

I knew a Gretchen who was several years older then me, she was IMO at the time (I was 8) the prettiest, nicest person I knew and I wanted to grow up to be just like her.

 

I think our interpretation of names are often affected, in our minds, by the people we know. So if Sarah was a mean girl in Jr high you're unlikely to have warm fuzzy feelings about the name Sarah.

Yes, I think you're right. And since I didn't know any other Gretchen when I was growing up, I have no idea why the name had that feeling to me! I just never felt like it "fit" me or was truly my own.

[Murphy101]

I have always really strongly disliked my name. It's a name that's been used for girls for over 12 generations on my dad's side of the family and it was my mother's name too. I never got a long with her though, so that didn't help. But I'll freely admit it beats the Cheryl Leona my mother said she would have saddled me with. Nothing really against those names, I just think they are an even worse fit for me.

[Jenn121]

I don't hate it anymore. I am not overly fond of it. I was born in the 70's and named Jennifer. Sigh. I was tired of being one of many. I never had less than 3-4 other Jennifers in my classes.  Now I go by Jenn and it is fine.

[mommaduck]

I have an original name for my gender. I can't hate it. I enjoy watching people's faces when they learn my name.

[lynn]

No. I've learned not to ask mil to name baby. But it could be worse the other name my nana liked, although sort of popular at the time, could have people wondering if I were an exotic dancer. Oh, my mom told me recently she wanted to name me after my godmother,but. Godmother did not like her name ,Emily Rose, and that's when Nana got involved,and they thought her choice was better?? And that is the rest of the story.

[AimeeM]

No. I've never cared much for the name Aimee. I prefer my middle name (Elizabeth), but I'm kind of stuck with Aimee now, lol.

[Xuzi]

I love my name, even though my parents misspelled it. :p It's JenaMarie, with the first half pronounced like Jenna, rather than Jee-na. I went by just the first half of my name through most of my school years, but there were always so many other Jennas, Jeanas, and Jannahs in my grade school classes that halfway through high school I started using my full name. Only one of my teachers made a stink about it, thinking it was just some act of teenage defiance to try and change my name midstream, but there it is on my birth certificate, and I asserted my right to my own name. :p

 

The only annoyance I have with it (besides never finding any personalized items in the store :lol: ) is that people think the Marie part is my middle name (I don't have a middle name), so I have to keep watch on any forms I fill out that they don't come back to me, after being transcribed, as Jena M. [lastname]. I've somewhat got around it by not capitalizing the M.

 

I love having a unique name, and gave my kids unique/uncommon first names, with more-common middle names as back-up, should they decide they're just too weird. :lol:

[AFwife Claire]

My first name actually was Barbara, after my dad's oldest sister who was killed in a car accident when she was 18, years before even my mom came on the scene, much less me.  My mom had always wanted to name a girl Claire after her grandma and sister, and she and my dad thought "Barbara Claire" sounded better than "Claire Barbara", so they went with that but always called me Claire.  I was very shy, and I *hated* having teachers call me Barbara before they got to know me.  My dad was Air Force, so we moved around a lot, and I went to different schools, thus leading to more new introductions and corrections.  I really am not a fan of the whole "call your child their middle name" phenomenon--it was such a hassle for me, and it made me dislike "Barbara" even more!

 

I got married at 20, and I decided I wanted to be "Claire MaidenName NewLastName".  I got that on my new military ID card, but my college would not recognize my middle name as my first name without it being legally changed.  So I got it changed legally!  I was very happy when I walked back into the college office and told them to NEVER call me "Barbara" again!  So I made sure to only name my kids the first names I was planning on calling them.  And I named my first daughter Anna Claire, which was the name my mom had always wanted.  So much prettier than Barbara, I always though, LOL!

[AnnE-girl]

I'm plain old A-n-n (the E in my username is an initial), but it only bothered me after reading Anne of Green Gables and learning just how dreadful it looks without the "e". I've mostly gotten over it though :-). I've gone through stages of having a few other Anns/Annes around me, but not too terribly common where I've had to use an initial all the time. I like that it's a fairly solid, simple, classic, but not trendy name.

[ocelotmom]

No. I don't really. I don't identify with it at all. But there's a common nickname for me that is much more me, and that people tend to naturally call me, so I don't really have any desire to change it, and I don't know what I'd change it to anyways.

 

My name was common enough that even Firstname Lastinitial wasn't adequate, because there were 4 of us with that combo in my relatively small school.

[lailasmum]

I've always hated my whole name. It's an awkward mess really but judging from my siblings names and the alternates they had my parents are just bad at choosing and combining names. I don't mind one shortened version of my name but it never gets used with me, instead another nickname does that makes sound like a Victorian house maid. I halved no attachment to my name at all. I have several friends who have changed their full names as adults so I think the not feeling attached to your name is common.

[Guest]

I thought that was the standard and more common pronunciation! Guess I was wrong. I also think it's very pretty said that way.

As far as I know Helen-uh is the common pronunciation. See city in Montana, crazy actress ex of Tim Burton, and the etymology of the name. Hel-EE-nuh or Hel-AI-nuh are pretty, but nonstandard.

[6packofun]

No, I've hated my name ever since it was mistaken for a boy name in a race I ran in 4th or 5th grade. They gave out medals to the top three girls and top three boys.  I got mine in the mail months later because they thought I was a guy at the time and we found out the mistake right after the medal ceremony.  :(  (Which is stupid to me because my name is spelled the "feminine" way, IMO...but the rare male spells it that way, too.  Hence, my hatred for my name. LOL) 

 

Once I left for college I started going by my first + middle names and that's how everyone knows me now.)