Do You Like Your Name?

[Jambalaya]

My neighbor has just had a baby and called her a beautiful classic name, Elizabeth. It set me thinking about what fun it must be to name a baby, which made me reflect on my own name. I've never been sure about it, so I just Googled it and found that it's commonly thought to be old-fashioned, out-of-date, ugly, a "mom" name, a fat name, and all manner of other negative things. It was one of the most popular names ever in the 1950s and has fallen sharply out of favor. It's commonly mentioned with other so-called Fifties names like Susan, Barbara, Nancy, Patricia.

I didn't think my poor name was as bad as all that! I thought it was slightly pretty at least. Now I feel bad about my name! I'd love to be named something classic like Elizabeth or Victoria. I always loved the name Laura too.

What about you? What do you think of your name? Do you like it?

 

[kenny]

Kenny's okay.

I just looked up my proper name, Kenneth.

 

[ponder]

My name was in the top 5 most popular names the year I was born (late 70's). It is not a popular name now. It will probably be considered old fashioned, out of date, a "mom/grandma in a few years. I like it well enough, but I don't think about it much. It's done fine by me so far.

 

[stracci2000]

I also have a common 1950's name. It's OK, I guess. I never disliked it.
It's my last name I dislike. It was my ex's last name, and I'm stuck with it. It is a Czech name that is unusual, and I have to spell it for people all the time.

Many years ago, I knew a girl who never wanted the men in bars to know her name.
She once told some guy that her name was Lapis Lazuli. He said "Oh, that's a nice name!" We laughed and laughed.

 

[katharath]

I'm ok with mine. It's more of a classic name, but it has a modern spelling, which I'm not crazy about. It's not "bad", but I do almost always have to spell it for people, or they'll probably spell it wrong.

That kind of always bothered me growing up. My DH has a very traditional name, and we gave our kids similarly traditional names with the common spelling for them as well. I'm sure my desire to give my kids such easy to spell, solid/traditional names is rooted in my dislike of always having to correct people about my own name!

I admit it, I cringe at a lot of the names people give their kids today. Mine wasn't even that bad, but I still constantly have to "correct" people on it, and I hate that. I think it would've been a lot worse having to go through life with a really tough, "one of a kind", difficult to spell or pronounce correctly name. I wanted my kids to have an easy time of it, and was very glad that DH and I were on the same page there

I recently read about a study that found that kids with unusual names were more likely to be given lower grades on tests/papers/etc than kids with traditional names. Kind of interesting.

 

[Jambalaya]

Lots of interesting responses - especially about the value or otherwise of having an unusual name or spelling, Katharath. My sister did exactly that - gave her daughter a traditional name but messed about with the spelling, so now her daughter will have a lifetime of correcting it for people, telling them it's "i.e." on the end instead of "y".

 

[packrat]

I hated my name growing up-now I don't really care. I would rather have had a different name, but I don't, so..and I don't know what I'd rather have either..just not what I have. Names are a big deal to me. I spent a lot of time agonizing over our kids' names, and even w/our pets, (and future pets, I've got names picked out for a dog and two cats already) I take great pains to choose the right name. I've got our daughter on board w/using the other girl name I had picked out when I was pg w/my son just in case the ultrasound was wrong and he was a girl. I won't tell her what it is tho, so she'll go nuts for the next 15+ years until she has a baby.

 

[Jambalaya]

Yeah, Packrat, I feel the same, I wished I had a different name but I don't, so there it is. I wish I hadn't looked it up tonight though. Apparently I have an old, fat name. But my beloved mother gave it to me, so I'll decide to love it anyway, I've decided!

 

[katharath]

Packrat - that's so funny, love that about you and your daughter.

Jambalaya - I'm sorry I'm sure you have a perfectly nice name! My mom has an "old fashioned" type of name too, it's not one that's commonly used now. But I never think of it as a "fat old lady" name, lol!! If you didn't know those negative things about it already, most people probably don't know them or think of it that way, either. I'm glad you've decided to love it

Stracci - I didn't like my last name growing up bc it was hard to pronounce and spelled oddly too - but I think I got lucky with my married name. It's kind of an unusual last name but I love it, and most people seem to like it too. I'm happy with it, it's kind of a fun sounding last name!

 

[OreoRosies86]

I used to hate my name but as an adult I love it.

 

[kenny]

I love names that are obvious, to me, how to pronounce and spell, such as David, Chen, Janet, and Juan.

I'm deeply annoyed by the parents who name their kids a common name with a 'special' spelling, like, Jon, Sindie, or Kurtiss.
But not as deeply annoyed as I am by parents who think up a name never used before, like oh, Moniquieouia.
News flash for mom and dad: A unique name does not make your Moniquieouia any more unique or special than her classmate Jane.

I'd rather be a boy named Sue.

If you want your kid to be special and unique do a good job parenting.
(Yeah, I realize that's harder than filling out a birth certificate after smoking a doobie.)

Now, you kids get off my lawn.

 

[Jambalaya]

You will love this: In TIME magazine a few months ago, there was a news item about the two oddest baby names in the States for last year. At least five babies must have the name to get on the Social Security name lists. Well, there are at least five little boys in the US with the names Princegeorge and Royaltee.

I was about to laugh long and loud, but then I thought, well, the parents obviously love those names and think they are the best names ever! It's beautiful to them. And who knows, maybe people subconsciously treat you better if you have "Prince" or "Royaltee" as a name!

I personally think that Cinderella is a lovely name. I mean, I know no one is called that and it doesn't seem like a real name, but it's a beautiful word. I also think that Tiara would make a lovely name - it's just such a pretty word. I know it's not a name, but there are many beautiful words that are not names and I think they should be! I once met a little girl named Opal and I thought that was cute. It's odd how the name Ruby has endured but not the name Pearl, which is a very old-fashioned name. I went to school with a Pearl. And it's also odd how Pearl and Ruby are/were "proper" accepted names but not Sapphire or Emerald. You know, I also think that Opalina and Sapphira are beautiful words. It's a pity, really, that we have set ideas about which words should be names, and which words should not be. If you take away their meanings as nouns, all these words are just so pretty.

Good thing I'm not naming any babies anytime soon isn't it. My little Cinderella Tiara! Well, she could always call herself Ella.

I would like to be named Clarissa.

 

[distracts]

I like my name. I don't go by my legal first name but by a nickname. Both are pretty common but my nickname is very common, and so I've always been known as Firstname Lastname (which is the main reason I didn't change my last name when I got married, lol). I don't think my name is a particularly pretty word, really, but it's very ME and so I like it. Plus my first name (nickname) and last name kind of rhyme, as do both my parents' and my brother's, and that's kind of cute.

My legal name is very nice, it's very beautiful, I think, but not "me" at all. It looks too staid and serious.

Interestingly, while in studies about the different impressions names give, my legal name comes in at more powerful/professional and my nickname as more friendly/peppy, resumes with my nickname rather than legal name get me better results.

My husband has a name that is about as common as mine, and he dislikes it and doesn't want to give our children common names. I'd rather common names than "unique" ones - for instance, I really like Sarah, because most of my best friends has been named Sarah (four different Sarahs - preschool, elementary school, high school, and post-college best friends) but my husband is dead set against that or any other name so common. He wants to pick a reasonably rare real name.

katharath - As a kid I wanted YOUR spelling and begged my parents to legally change my name. Even as an adult I get pangs of jealousy when looking at that spelling, lol.

 

[missy]

It's OK. There are better names than mine and worse names than mine so I am so so about my name. I always loved the name Veronica but not enough to change it legally LOL. My dad and mom did not agree on what to name me and my mom won that disagreement. If my dad had his way I would have been Melanie. I feel the same way about Melanie as I do about Melissa. So that was a draw IMO. My mom hates my nickname and I go by Missy to half of my friends (the nickname my mom loathes as it sounds like a poodle to her haha) and by Melissa to the other half of my friends. The one nickname I hate though and none of my friends call me by it as they know better is Mel. Don't care for that nickname at all.

I also hate it when someone has a name but it is spelled weirdly. What a pain to burden a child with IMO. It seems so affected on the parents part to do that. As others have said just do a great job loving and teaching your child and they will be special no matter the name. You don't need to make the name weird to make the child unique and special.

Packrat, if I am remembering correctly we share the same name...

If we had children I would have chosen a classic old fashioned name as I prefer those in general. Something like Emily, Julia or Emma. I love those names.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

My name is simple enough but tied to the 80's. There were 3 other little girls with the same first AND middle name as me in Pre-K, made for necessary nicknames. I'm used to being called by my last name. That worked until I was married, now my last name is also incredibly common and I have a nickname for my last name. Even at my job which has a relatively small staff for a school there has always been at least one other with the same first name and one other (or more) with the same last name. My husband has a classic name that cannot be dated. We are having a son and have chosen a similar name. No trendy/"speshul" names for my kids.

 

[arkieb1]

There is a kid at my son's school called Bless Daley, (Bless Daily)..... I have a very naughty belly laugh every time someone yells out Bless Daley across the playground.

I used to be a school teacher many years ago from the Hippie names to the weird names to the same name with 300 weird cake versions of spelling it, there isn't much that surprises me...

My middle name IRL is Elizabeth btw and I grew up hating it, named after my English grandmother who was named after her grandmother. Now that I am older I can appreciate old fashioned names passed down many hundreds of years....

 

[ponder]

I also have a common 1950's name. It's OK, I guess. I never disliked it.
It's my last name I dislike. It was my ex's last name, and I'm stuck with it. It is a Czech name that is unusual, and I have to spell it for people all the time.

Many years ago, I knew a girl who never wanted the men in bars to know her name.
She once told some guy that her name was Lapis Lazuli. He said "Oh, that's a nice name!" We laughed and laughed.

I too am weird about not wanting to over share with strangers in bars. One night my DH and I met a friend at a bar who has the same name as I do. Halfway through the evening we ran into two other friends who also share the same name. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out. Repeatedly guys would approach, start conversation, and try and buy us drinks. Of course they would ask our names and we would introduce ourselves as same name, same name, same name and same name. I don't think anyone believed us and thought we were just messing with them.

 

[Niel]

I really do love baby naming.
I hope my children don't end up hating their names as I am utterly in love with them, and tried really hard.

My full name is just about the most classic name ever (besides Mary) but I go by a short name. The kind of "nickname" where when people hear my actual name they are surprised because they didn't know my name was short for anything.

I liked how it was unique and no one went by it anymore. But like all old names, about 7 years ago my name got a big "bump". No a lot of people tell me how their neice, daughter, or granddaughter has my name. I mean I guess that's fine...but its definitely differ than before when all id get was " my dogs name is ****" lol

 

[Niel]

It's OK. There are better names than mine and worse names than mine so I am so so about my name. I always loved the name Veronica but not enough to change it legally LOL. My dad and mom did not agree on what to name me and my mom won that disagreement. If my dad had his way I would have been Melanie. I feel the same way about Melanie as I do about Melissa. So that was a draw IMO. My mom hates my nickname and I go by Missy to half of my friends (the nickname my mom loathes as it sounds like a poodle to her haha) and by Melissa to the other half of my friends. The one nickname I hate though and none of my friends call me by it as they know better is Mel. Don't care for that nickname at all.

I also hate it when someone has a name but it is spelled weirdly. What a pain to burden a child with IMO. It seems so affected on the parents part to do that. As others have said just do a great job loving and teaching your child and they will be special no matter the name. You don't need to make the name weird to make the child unique and special.

Packrat, if I am remembering correctly we share the same name...

If we had children I would have chosen a classic old fashioned name as I prefer those in general. Something like Emily, Julia or Emma. I love those names.

I completely agree. It seems as though parents want their kids to be unique. However, I don't see how it is unique because if its jasmine or jazzmynn, they are pronounced the same.

 

[katharath]

I like my name. I don't go by my legal first name but by a nickname. Both are pretty common but my nickname is very common, and so I've always been known as Firstname Lastname (which is the main reason I didn't change my last name when I got married, lol). I don't think my name is a particularly pretty word, really, but it's very ME and so I like it. Plus my first name (nickname) and last name kind of rhyme, as do both my parents' and my brother's, and that's kind of cute.

My legal name is very nice, it's very beautiful, I think, but not "me" at all. It looks too staid and serious.

Interestingly, while in studies about the different impressions names give, my legal name comes in at more powerful/professional and my nickname as more friendly/peppy, resumes with my nickname rather than legal name get me better results.

My husband has a name that is about as common as mine, and he dislikes it and doesn't want to give our children common names. I'd rather common names than "unique" ones - for instance, I really like Sarah, because most of my best friends has been named Sarah (four different Sarahs - preschool, elementary school, high school, and post-college best friends) but my husband is dead set against that or any other name so common. He wants to pick a reasonably rare real name.

katharath - As a kid I wanted YOUR spelling and begged my parents to legally change my name. Even as an adult I get pangs of jealousy when looking at that spelling, lol.

Lol! Ah that's so funny - I always thought I'd have preferred the way your name is spelled . I actually think it would have suited me much better. If I'd had that spelling, I think I'd have been happy with my name!!

Isn't it funny how we so often want the opposite of what we have?

Glad you posted, I enjoyed your perspective

 

[Trekkie]

I don't particularly like my first name. It's very mid-eighties white South African. It's also hyphenated, which is a pain. You try spelling a name and then trying to explain what a hyphen is to someone whose first language is not English. My American friends tease me about my name and say the hyphen makes me sound like a hillbilly.

My surname is a touchy subject. During my first marriage I went by the dullest of dull surnames ever - Brown. Really. Brown. At least with Smith you can pretend that it's an alias and you're a secret agent or a celebrity or something interesting! Brown? Urgh. I was elated to change it back to my maiden name after my divorce. My maiden surname is special and different. My surname is all over my home city - I'm a descendant of one of the best known of the British missionaries. One of his sons went on to be prime minister of then-Rhodesia, now-Zimbabwe, and one of his daughters married David Livingstone. It's a cool surname and comes packed with history.

When we started discussing marriage way back in 2009, I lobbied to keep my maiden name. I carefully explained the history behind my surname and emphasised that my British ancestors arrived in South Africa even before the 1820 British settlers (a watershed moment in South African history). My now-husband looked at me and said, "There have been [his surname]s in Africa since 1688".

And that was the end of that... So now I have an English white girl first name with a French Hugenot/Afrikaner surname... And I'm coloured!

tl:dr I don't like my name and I don't think we match.

 

[House Cat]

My neighbor has just had a baby and called her a beautiful classic name, Elizabeth. It set me thinking about what fun it must be to name a baby, which made me reflect on my own name. I've never been sure about it, so I just Googled it and found that it's commonly thought to be old-fashioned, out-of-date, ugly, a "mom" name, a fat name, and all manner of other negative things. It was one of the most popular names ever in the 1950s and has fallen sharply out of favor. It's commonly mentioned with other so-called Fifties names like Susan, Barbara, Nancy, Patricia.

I didn't think my poor name was as bad as all that! I thought it was slightly pretty at least. Now I feel bad about my name! I'd love to be named something classic like Elizabeth or Victoria. I always loved the name Laura too.

What about you? What do you think of your name? Do you like it?

Screw that noise! If you didn't think all of that about your name before you googled it, please don't think it now.

Google can be such a jerk sometimes!

 

[jordyonbass]

Not really, I have a name that isn't very common and people rarely get it right.

However I am grateful that I didn't get named as per the naming tradition on my mother's greek side of the family (naming after the grandfather). I have dozens of cousins named Peter or Anesti/Andy and I need my parents to explain the relation if they mention either of those names so I know which Anesti or John they may be referring to. Since I'm the black sheep of the family I guess it's kind of fitting that I didn't get involved in the naming tradition

 

[Ally T]

When I was in Primary School, I absolutely hated the name Alexandra & made people call me Claire. It was a long name that nobody else in my school had, so I decided i would only answer to Claire

Since my mid 20's I have embraced my name & grown into it. I am now in my 40's & have only met a couple of other women called Alexandra over the years, which like. It's not a weird name, but it's not a common name. When naming my daughters I tried to achieve the same thing: not weird but not common & I am hugely happy with the choices. They are named Hope Isobelle & Lola Joy. We figured with those names they could be either a really cool rock chick OR a respectable solicitor

 

[Jambalaya]

My neighbor has just had a baby and called her a beautiful classic name, Elizabeth. It set me thinking about what fun it must be to name a baby, which made me reflect on my own name. I've never been sure about it, so I just Googled it and found that it's commonly thought to be old-fashioned, out-of-date, ugly, a "mom" name, a fat name, and all manner of other negative things. It was one of the most popular names ever in the 1950s and has fallen sharply out of favor. It's commonly mentioned with other so-called Fifties names like Susan, Barbara, Nancy, Patricia.

I didn't think my poor name was as bad as all that! I thought it was slightly pretty at least. Now I feel bad about my name! I'd love to be named something classic like Elizabeth or Victoria. I always loved the name Laura too.

What about you? What do you think of your name? Do you like it?

Screw that noise! If you didn't think all of that about your name before you googled it, please don't think it now.

Google can be such a jerk sometimes!

You're right, House Cat! Thank you! Mean ole' Google.

 

[Jambalaya]

Alex T, I like your children's names - very pretty! I also envy your name. I think Alexandra is classic and very posh! I'd love a name like that. Do people call you Alexandra or Alex? I think the full version is so nice. I would so love to have an elegant regal name like yours. Apparently I have a fat Fifties mom name! Top name in the States for the Fifties, and today no one is called it and it's dowdy. And fat! The worst thing is that I actually am fat.

 

[Kaleigh]

I hated my name growing up. I was never called by my given name always my nick name, Lisa. I was named after my grandmother who never used the name either and disliked it.

I wanted to change my name when I was a teenager but my mother said it was bad luck.

Now I think it's a pretty name, but still dislike when I get called by it at the docs, dentist and the like...

 

[tyty333]

My parents called me by my middle name which I dont care for. I do like my first name when pronounced the way most people
pronounce it (not the way my parents intended). My parents obviously didnt know the rules to naming back then and gave me
3 1-syllable names. How boring!

 

[Ally T]

Alex T, I like your children's names - very pretty! I also envy your name. I think Alexandra is classic and very posh! I'd love a name like that. Do people call you Alexandra or Alex? I think the full version is so nice. I would so love to have an elegant regal name like yours. Apparently I have a fat Fifties mom name! Top name in the States for the Fifties, and today no one is called it and it's dowdy. And fat! The worst thing is that I actually am fat.

I am sure you have a beautiful name! How ridiculous that people think it's OK to make such generalisations on the internet Mostly people call me Alex or Ally, but I use Alexandra on everything when giving my name, making appointments, introducing to strangers etc. And my husband calls me by the full title when I irritate him, with a very over-pronounced "Alex-ahhhn-draaa"

My name turns out to have been a compromise. My mother wanted to call me Alexis & my father wanted Annie, so they settled on Alexandra. Interestingly there is only one child at my daughters school with the same name. It seems I am hugely out of fashion also!

 

[Jambalaya]

Oh, no - Alexandra is a classic name so it can never be out of fashion! Wasn't there a Princess Alexandra? All the Alexandras I've ever met have been pretty and elegant!