Do you like your name?

[ephemery1]

My name is Sandra, but I've always gone by Sandy... I HATED it growing up because it felt outdated (leftover from the Grease era), and I knew multiple people with pet dogs named Sandy.

I used to pretend it was actually Cassandra or Alexandra instead. I don't remember ever being teased though, other than one particular boy who used to call me "Sandy Beaches", which really isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. We became good friends by high school.

As I got older, I stopped minding it so much... and now I actually like that it's unique (in my age group, anyway!). I am definitely the only Sandy in people's cell phones, whereas I have about 6 different Jen's in mine. And most of the Jennifers, Jessicas, and Ashleys I know always hated having to have a last initial attached, and wished for something more unique.

What's interesting is that my brothers have VERY common names... Michael and David... and recently I asked them how they feel about having such popular names. They both said that they LOVE their names and would never in a million years want anything different. Which made me wonder if maybe it's different for guys and girls? At his recent college graduation, there were 13 Michaels graduating from the Finance department alone (which wasn't very big to begin with!), but didn't bother him in the least.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

My name is Margaret and I go by Meg. I absolutely LOVE having an old fashioned name, but a "younger" name to go by. My mom said it was important to her that if we ran for president or anything that our names would sound professional. As a kid I hated when the teacher would call roll and people would find out my real name was Margaret, but I have now totally embraced it. These days, old fashioned names are not nearly as popular as they once were, and I''m also glad that I don''t share the same name with many others my age.

 

[Kaleigh]

My nickname is Lisa. There were lots of Lisa''s in my class, but I still love the name. My real name is Alice, I was named after my Nanny. Nanny didn''t like the name either. She went by Bunny. I wanted to change it as I got older, but my Mom said it was bad luck. Oh well, I am stuck with it now.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

When I was young, I never ran into another Lauren. In fact, I think I met my first ''other'' Lauren at about 21, and only recently worked with another one.

I love my name, and think it goes well with both my maiden name, and my married name (thankfully!).

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

I have a VERY unusual name. When I was named, it was never used and now is only occasionally a boys name. I was name Cashel, but it is pronounced Cushel, not the traditional way, which I like better. I have only ever heard of a handful of them, all boys younger than me, including Daniel Day Lewis''s youngest son.
I love it, always have. When I was in class with Catherine, Kathy, Kate, Katie, Kat, etc, I was always the only Cashel. Its a pain when I am on the phones at work and people get it wrong all the time, but anything faxed to my attention there comes right to me as well. My parents gave us both (my brother as well) unusual Irish names and common middle names so if we wanted to be normal we could. My FI and I like that system so much it is what we are doing.

 

[joflier]

I absolutley hated my name when I was a kid......Jodi.....I got teased quite often about having a boys name, and it was compounded because I had a lower voice for a girl at that age. But I like it now. There''s no one where I work named Jodi, so that''s nice. Of course my name is endlessly spelled wrong - Jody, that used to really bug me, I don''t know why, but I don''t really care anymore.

 

[Linda W]

There were hundreds of girls named Linda. It was a very popular name when I was in high school. Yes, I remember cutting records off of cereal boxes too, ha ha ha ha ha.


Linda

 

[allycat0303]

Oh my GOD NO. I am so mad at my parents for giving me my name. It`s not AWFUL, but I HATE it. My real name is Alice. I don`t know what they were thinking. Everytime I open the obituary section there is at least 1 Alice that has passed away. In addition, when I was young, everyone would call me ''''loser Alice in Wonderland'''' because the real Alice is blond. And I am asian! So this totally doesn`t work.

My friends and familly call me Ally. Everyone that I dislike calls me Alice (I don`t bother to tell them not to call me anything at all).

When my fiancé is really angry at me he calls me ''''ALICE'''' in this really awful voice too. So whenever I hear Alice, it''s now associated with unpleasentness. Either it''s someone I don''t like, or my fiancé about to lost patience with me.

 

[mimzy]

my name is alexis - i love my name now, but like a lot of people i hated it when i was little (when i went by lexi). i hated it so much that i would put different names on my papers in school, refuse to answer to any variation of my first name (only to my middle name, ann), and cross my name off and write something different whenever it was written somewhere. not to mention the nicknames...lex luther, sexy lexi (which is pretty traumatizing for a fifth grader). i stopped disliking it in probably seventh grade or so though. i knew a couple alexis's and a few alexia's, but not outside our greek church. i switched to 'alexis' when i turned 19 because i didn't want to have a little girls name forever (although now i sort of regret it....i always feel like i am in trouble whenever stefan says my name because he only knows me as alexis). there's also a bunch of nicknames for it - lexi, lex, alex, alexi, ali

now i love my name. it goes well with my last name which is super ethnic and isn't super common (i grew up with all kristens, meghans, elizabeths, ashleys, laurens, allisons, michelles, nicoles, andreas, etc) but not so crazy that people can't say it.

IG - what are some of your contenders??

 

[jcrow]

Date: 7/7/2008 8:47:28 AM
Author: justjulia
Warning: about to age myself.

I went by Julie most of my school life, but met dh with Julia. I enjoyed the days when Bobby Sherman came out with his cereal box hit, 'Julie, Julie, Julie do ya love me?' Does anyone remember cutting records off cereal boxes??

i've never heard of this, but will investigate... and with that, there's my name - julie.
i've always liked it. it's not super common, but it's not so unique that it's weird. it's easy to pronounce and spell. and i always had personalized items - happy birthday julie wrapping paper, anyone?

 

[ellaila]

Not so much, though I do like the way it flows with my middle name: Pamela Beth. Always went by Pam when I was younger but then I got tired of saying, "No, PAM, not Kim!" so I started saying and writing Pamela. I don''t hate it, but I''m not gaga over it either! When I was little, I wanted to be Elizabeth (after Elizabeth in Eight is Enough) or Cindy (from the Brady Bunch of course)

I named my daughter Katelyn, spelled that way so she can be Katelyn, Kate, or Katie. I love it! And our son is Gabriel, which we get tons of compliments on - a nice, strong name!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I''ve been having some name issues lately

I am indifferent to my name. My first name is Nicole...sometimes I wish I had something more unique. The problem is that I don''t like my first
with my married name, I prefer it with my maiden name. Also, I now have two middle names and always sign my two middle initials, which are I.K., so my middle name has essentially become IK. I used to like my full name, but I''ve somehow butchered it.

If I had a cub of my own and were thinking of names, I would use something meaningful or sentimental to me. My first middle name is my grandmother''s name, which I now love. Nicole has no familial meaning and I wish it did.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 7/7/2008 1:35:28 PM
Author: allycat0303
Oh my GOD NO. I am so mad at my parents for giving me my name. It`s not AWFUL, but I HATE it. My real name is Alice. I don`t know what they were thinking. Everytime I open the obituary section there is at least 1 Alice that has passed away. In addition, when I was young, everyone would call me ''loser Alice in Wonderland'' because the real Alice is blond. And I am asian! So this totally doesn`t work.

My friends and familly call me Ally. Everyone that I dislike calls me Alice (I don`t bother to tell them not to call me anything at all).

When my fiancé is really angry at me he calls me ''ALICE'' in this really awful voice too. So whenever I hear Alice, it''s now associated with unpleasentness. Either it''s someone I don''t like, or my fiancé about to lost patience with me.

I feel your pain!!!

 

[Sha]

I like my name (won''t say it here cause I live in such a small place), but it''s very unique. My parents made it up on their own. So far I don''t know anyone else by my name.

It always gets mispelled and mispronounced though.

 

[TravelingGal]

Yup, love my name. Not as much when I was a kid, as it''s not a common name here in the states . But now I like that it''s different enough to be unique, but not way out there.

 

[pennquaker09]

My name is McKinnley and I really don''t like it all that much. But my name is a family name and I''m the 3rd one to have it. So, when I think about it that way, it''s okay. I actually go by my middle name, Trevor. There are only three people that use any variation of McKinnley and they are my mom, my dad, and Nate. Nate calls me Kenny. (Imagine me sticking a finger in my mouth and making a puking sound, because that''s what I feel like doing.)

 

[MonkeyPie]

I really like my name, because where I live, no one else spells it the way I do. Aimee. I once dated a guy that was really happy I spelled it that way, because in his mind he associated "Amy" with "**** star." He was a freak anyway.

And thankfully my name sounds good with both my maiden and married last names

When we have kiddos, I really want them to have something unique like me. We have been passing around names (we plan to start TTC next year, yay!), and while we have a boy name picked out, I can''t find a good one for a girl. We will see.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I have a weird one: Emmalee

It''s all one word (not Emma Lee) and only the first letter is capitalized (not EmmaLee). Also, it''s pronounced like "Emily." It drives me absolutely NUTS when people say "EmmaLEE" like my high school chemistry teacher always did! Did I mention that IT''S PRONOUNCED LIKE "EMILY"!!!

My great-grandmother''s name was Emma, and both my parents'' middle names are Lee, so that''s where my mom got her inspiration!

Before I got married, my initials were EAW, and DH''s last name starts with R ~ I really didn''t want my initials to spell "EAR" after we got married! LOL! So, I dropped my old middle name (Anne), made maiden name my new middle name, and I took DH''s last name ~ my initials are now EWR.

I just go by "Emm" to make it simple for everyone (especially me)!

 

[FrekeChild]

No. It's Elizabeth. And on all scantron tests I am Elizabet, because the blankety blanks at the scantron companies decided that people are only allowed to have 8 letter names. WTH is up with that?!

Besides, I don't think it fits me very well.

ETA: But because my last name is a common girls first name, I get called by that all the time, so as a result I respond to Liz, Beth, Betsy, Lizbeth, Liza, Betty, all other variations of Elizabeth and any common or not common nicknames, Marie (middle name), variations of my last name, and everything in between. And I also respond to Freke as well as FrekeChild being that it was originally a nickname.

 

[parrot tulips]

I like my name. It''s easy and I never got teased for it. I also like that all the sounds/letters in my name are soft. No "hard" letters. Michelle. Close friends and family call me Mish or Mishi (pronounced Meesh or Meeshy), which I also like. Occassionally people of other cultures will mess it up a little bit, but hey, they speak at least one more language than I do, so I can certainly deal with being called "Michow" or "Mitchell" once and a while. The only time I wished it were more unique was my first day of high school. Everyone was introducing themselves, and there were 5 of us in one classroom.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

I love my name because it is uncommon (not going to put it cause of that). But when I was little it was painful. No one could say it right. To this day, no once can spell it. Just had to go get it corrected on a form today.

 

[nclrgirl]

I like my name! It''s not terribly common. And my Dad named me (kind of)! He liked a particular nickname, then my Mom picked a "given name" that could use that nickname. It makes me feel special!

 

[Octavia]

I''m not crazy fond of my first name. It''s a "normal" name but not extremely common -- no other girls in my elementary or high school classes had it, only one other girl in college, and I''ve met maybe two or three others since then. It''s not a name you can really make into a nickname, though, and I always felt kind of cheated by that. I really craved a nickname as a child. I do like the way it flows with my middle name, though.

I used to dislike my surname because it''s so long, but as I''ve gotten older I''ve started to really love it. It''s quite unique and there''s a story behind it. FI wants me to change it, but that''s not happening. It''s kind of ironic that I''d probably be amenable to changing my first name if I could come up with something that was more "me," but I''m attached to my surname and altogether, I do think my whole name sounds very nice.

 

[Miranda]

Haha! This cracked me up because when I scrolled through I thought to myself, "You mean TGal''s name isn''t TGal?" Silly!

Yes, I like my name(s). It isn''t terribly common though it is not unusual either. I actually have two names. My real name that the kids'' teachers etc. call me and a nickname that most friends call me.

 

[librarychickie]

I love my name, Hayley Ann, and I always have! When I was growing up, I was the only Hayley. It wasn't until about 7 years ago that I started having students with the same name.

Mine is spelled the "proper way" according to my mother.

So many times, people want to spell it Haley -- like the last name, but it's like Hayley Mills.

My sister's name is Hilary Jane-- note the one "L." My brother's name is Scott Antony (like Mark Antony).

We all think she did well in naming us.

 

[deegee]

As a kid, I really didn''t like my name. Nobody could pronounce it and I never could find it on anything (keychains, notepads, magnets - nothing). That was a big thing when I was a kid. I used to wish so badly that I had a normal name so that I could find on a souvenir licence plate at the beach. My sister had one, and I was jealous.

As an adult, I married a guy with an unusual last name, so now nobody can pronounce or spell my first or last name. The name on my car title right now is spelled wrong because the person at the DMV decided to add another letter to my name, and the record at my doctors office is wrong because they took out a letter. I spell my name for everybody, but it still gets messed up. I answer to anything that sounds close.

My name is Deana (Dee-na), but it gets pronounced (and spelled) Deanna, Dena, Donna, Diana, Dreama, Deva, Deanne, Diane, Denae, and so on. It drives me crazy!!

 

[gailrmv]

My name is kind of old fashioned. I''m neutral about it really. It''s not what I would pick for myself or my own future child, but it''s not a bad name. I like that I don''t meet too many people with my name; I hope it makes me memorable.

 

[scarleta]

Love it and have to spell it each time and time again only to realize that no one remembers it, but I do like it a lot.

 

[Julianna]

My name is...Julianna... and I do like it. When I was a teenager I changed it to Juli (and got righteously indignant when people spelled it with an "e") for a while but I am not sure why. I''m back to Julianna. The only other Julianna I know of is Julianna Margoulis (I hope I spelled that right) who is fabulous.

 

[Dandi]

My name is Andrea. It''s orroite I guess

I always knew I was in strife as a child when mother dearest called me by my full name, Andrea Maree. That meant there was was trouble a''brewin''!

The middle name Maree goes way back on mum''s side, but admittedly I''m not a huge fan of it. I might keep it in the family if we ever have a daughter, I may not!