I'm Amber Elizabeth. I've always been fine with my name, although as a kid I used to wish Elizabeth was my first name so I could have a nn like Eliza or Liz. I like it fine now still.
My name is a "unique" spelling of Casey, and I was born in 1985. I usually hate unique spellings, but I don't mind my name. There's no superfluous Ys, Xs, and does not end in an i, so I am happy with it. It gets misspelled all the time, and I was always bummed when I was little when we went to theme parks or whatever with souvenirs with your name on it, and they never had mine. But whatever. I'm good with it.
My middle name is a feminine version of my dad's name, Brian. My mom got cutesy and named both me and my sister K first names (after her name, Kimberly), and B middle names after our dad. My first and middle name flow nicely together, so overall, I have never hated my name, and am pretty happy with it.
Married 10/4/2014 (10-4, good buddy!) Baby Boy #1 born 1/9/17 Baby Boy #2 EDD 11/4/18
"It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." -Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird
Rachel Lynne born in 1988. As a child I hated it because in school I was "Rachel R." never just Rachel because there was always 2 or more Rachel's in my class. My high school locker partners name was also Rachel Lynne.
Spelling was always an issue everyone always spelled is R-A-C-H-A-E-L instead of R-A-C-H-E-L.
My mom got Rachel from some soap opera and just liked Lynne. My dad had no say but her other choice was Tuesday-Taylor as a first name...after hearing that Rachel isn't really that bad.
I honestly have no issues with my name now as an adult.
Didn't like my name as a kid. From about high school on I really started to love it. Samantha and Sam (no Sammy) fit me really well. I like that it's feminine and has nick name options.
Don't like my middle name though. Really don't like them together with the two vowel sounds. But it could be worse...I always liked that I didn't have Marie or Lynn for a middle name like all my friends seemed to have.
Olivia Jane. I used to hate my name because I had SO many girls with the same name in my grade. I used to hate Jane as well but I finally decided to embrace it and now I love it. I especially love the two names together. I often get told that it sounds like a name of an author but that's not a problem. People also called me "OJ" and OJ Simpson and I hated it but people grew out of their immaturity eventually.
Hey, we have the same name! Down to the spelling and everything. Growing up I went by Elizabeth, then Beth, then Liss (because Liz was too ordinary apparently?). I've never been super excited about the middle name, but I appreciate having the E in there, but Elizabeth has definitely grown on me.
I like my name but people always spell it wrong which had always annoyed me. I'm a one L Hilary. I was always the only Hilary in room which was cool but then I would get the "like Hillary Clinton!" Or "hilary duff" comments. Also annoying.
I hate my name. All of them, first, middle, and last, are top 10 girl names from the year I was born that all start with A. I'm an 80's Ashley, so there was always another one around (in fact, at two separate times in my life, my closet friend was also named Ashley), and since my middle and last names were both stupidly common girl names, I couldn't go by either of them...my 'clique' in high school included two other Ashleys, and one of each with my middle name and my last name. I went by Asher, because that was the only nickname still available. It was ridiculous, and I hated it. My mom's backup name was Dana, and I wish they would have gone with that, but they picked Ashley "because it is unique" (that's legit what my baby book says). Can you tell that I'm bitter?
Sarah Grace, here. The name wasn't popular at all when I was named in 1990 and I only knew one other girl with the same first name, who happened to be my younger cousin. I've always like my name. It's a classic, easy to pronounce and the only spelling question I get is with or without the "H". So thankful my parent had sense when naming all of us and didn't choose youneek, armpit names. I intend to carry on that tradition in naming my son, as classic names that trend are preferable (in my own opinion) to made-up, city trendy names.
Toni Nichole. I absolutely HATED my name growing up. Whenever I told people my name I always got "Tony is a boy's name". My name is constantly spelled with a Y. When I was 9, my mom married my step dad whose name is Antonio but he goes by Tony, so that was annoying. I'm still not too fond of my name and wish my mom would have given me a traditional girl's name.
Alexis 1979. When I was a kid, my name was super uncommon. Around November when people were talking about "the elections" I always misheard and thought they were talking about me. Nobody could say it. Nobody could spell it. The ones that could thought I was named after the bitchy woman from Dynasty (I wasn't!). People made fun of it. I knew it was a Russian man's name. I hated it. Once I was in high school (around 10th grade), I started to really appreciate that I wasn't one of the Jennifers/Christies/Tiffanys etc. As an adult, around the time that I really started to love my name, it was com incidentally becoming more popular for little girls; whenever I would hear it in public I'd answer – I had been the only one for so long! – only to see a mother talking to her young daughter and looking confusedly at me. Something i can say: I have never and will never drive a Lexus, and I am not from Texas. There were other jokes, but those were the big eyerollers. Please get some creativity people :P
March 2016 siggy: babies - expectation vs reality Brian's Whovian wife (5/'09)
AP, BF, BW, CD, CLW, CS, ERF, Catholic mama
to Evan (7/'10), Clare (8/'11), Dean (3/'14), ^F(12/'15)^, Rose (3/'16)
*no longer a Timelord ~ WibblyWobbly BabyWaby is here!*
but i still feel bigger on the inside Autism mama!
I'm an 80s Kristen and I've always disliked my name. My parents chose it because they liked it and in their defense it was trendy at the time. I never meet young girlss named Kristen anymore. It's not classic, at all. My brother is Michael (named after family) and my sister is Grace (also a great classic and a family name) and I have always been bitter that I'm the only one who didn't get named after someone in our family. "We just liked it!" (Eye roll)
Needless to say, both of my children have classic, family names.
Hey, we have the same name! Down to the spelling and everything. Growing up I went by Elizabeth, then Beth, then Liss (because Liz was too ordinary apparently?). I've never been super excited about the middle name, but I appreciate having the E in there, but Elizabeth has definitely grown on me.
I AM A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHY YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE YOUR CHILD A MADE UP NAME! IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT IT, JUST DON'T!
I have a completely made up first name that is a combination of letters from each of my parents' names. As a child, I hated my name because no teacher could ever get it right at first. I just leaned to answer to anything close to it for the first few weeks of each school year. All of my friends/classmates had personalized school supplies, and of course I could never find any with my name. My mom finally special-ordered some pencils and notebooks with my name on them so I wouldn't feel left out.
Even as an adult, I find my name annoying because when I introduce myself I have to repeat it several times. As a professional, this makes networking events more stressful than they should be. I feel like my name undermines my professional credibility (at least first impressions). I have thought about changing it or going by my MN (a normal, "real" name, but not one I'm crazy about), but it's too late in my career at this point. I just give my MN at Starbucks, etc.
On the upside, I have never met anyone with my name before, and no one has to ask *which* [MY NAME] someone is referring to.
My name is Maureen. I didn't like it growing up, because it was not common. I also never had the personalized stuff! Although every time my mom saw something with my name, she bought it, no matter what it was! People always called me Marie when I told them my name. Kids my age had never heard it, although once I got to college I got a lot of "that's my mom's name" or "that's my aunt's name." Also, there were a few nicknames, but nothing that I could introduce myself as.
Now I like it, because it's a little different, and I think it's pretty. Even though it might be considered an old lady name! My sister was named Melanie, and I always liked that better than Maureen (Melanie is still one of my favorite names).
My name is Jody and I really love it actually. Growing up I never knew anyone with the same name which was great in classes filled with Kelly's and Jennifer's ( non offense to anyone) It is a short, non fussy name so no weird nicknames and not too girly girl. Not made up but wasn't common either.
I'm also mn Kay. I had a common 80's name (thankfully only one in my class & she went by the nn. ) so when I was 7 I begged everyone to call me Kay. I've always liked it. My gram worked with a Kay & I wanted to work in an office.
I was sad to see this name in a top ten dead names list. I want to name my daughter Kay linn. One word pronounced separately. I know it would get merged to kale-in so I won't be doing this. Looking at alternative k names.
Stefanie from '87. So... no. I don't like my name. Well actually Stephanie would be fine but the "F" has just been a constant pain. My mom saw this special spelling in the credits of a movie she was watching while pregnant with me and decided to change the spelling from Stephanie to Stefanie. Why Mom? Why? I hope it was a great movie!
I feel like parents used to put less thought into naming children many years ago. I can only hope my daughter doesn't feel this way about her name one day!
Every October this thread rises from the grave to haunt us for Halloween!
Nicole Lee, late 80s. I don't mind my name but don't love it either. At least it's not childish sounding. Growing up I went by Nicki for a while which has a different sound to it: NI-key. Nicole is more like Ni-COLE. The change in emphasis always bothered me when everyone switched to calling me Nicole, I guess I like the Ni sound more than the Co sound.
There were a few others with my name in my class, so I went by a last initial sometimes. There was another girl with the same middle name and same last initial as me though and whenever we had classes together we had to go by our entire names-which both of us had long, harder to pronounce last names. That was pretty annoying. Funny enough, we both now have the same exact married last name! Ahh!
My middle name is after my aunt and I don't care for it. I feel it's a boyish name and there wasn't much meaning behind it. My younger sister was named after my grandmother and several cousins shared her middle name and it seemed more special to me.
Alana (uh-lay-na) Michelle. I think my name flowed nicely with my maiden name and I love that my name is spelled differently but still looks classy. I guess I'm indifferent to it. I grew up around Tiffany's, Lauren's, and Jessica's and I always wished my name were as gorgeous as theirs.
My name is Christina. It's not terrible, but I'm an atheist so it kind of bothers me that I have a name with "Christ" in it.
Apparently I was almost named "Paula" after the pope who survived an attempted assassination around the time of my birth... So I guess there was no getting out of a name with religious associations.
Samantha Lauren from '85. Although a popular 80's name, I only grew up with one other Sam in my class. I always wanted something more unique, but I also feel like I made my name my own. I am a Sam, or Samantha given the situation. I always found it interesting what people initially called me upon meeting me. That being said, I'll hate Sammy forever.
I had a son in June and named him Wolfgang. He'll be the only Wolfie in his class, fingers crossed.
Helen Marie '88 UK I always disliked my name growing up as I felt it was an older name. I too wanted a trendy name. However now I am a bit older I don't mind it as much. I still think it sounds like someone's mums name which will be fitting soon as I am obviously going to be a mum but I think it sounds kind of dignified and more classy than the trendier names I wanted back when I was younger. My middle name was my grandmothers and I will be passing it on to my daughter when she is born.
Marley Rose. Late 90's. My mom was a huge fan of Bob Marley when she was pregnant with me. I have a younger sister named Presley after Elvis so she's all about musician names. Rose after my paternal grandmother, she was born in Germany and her full name is Roswitha but my dad didn't know how to spell it so they just picked Rose (her american name).
As for liking my name I haven't quite decided. I didn't like it as a child because I never thought it fit me, like it was too unique and I was lame haha. Now that I'm older I do like it but still don't think it fits me haha I look more like a Sophia, or a Katelyn in my opinion lol,
If I was a boy I was going to be Brodee (Brody with a weird spelling? c'mon dad, really?)
I am my parents fourth girl and they gave me a masculine FN and MN. That's not even the worst part...they nicknamed me "Alex"...a shortened version of my middle name....
I am almost 26 years old and probably spent a quarter of my life explaining my name.
***there is a more feminine way of spelling Corey, but my parents decided to go all out with the masculinity of my name.
I never really thought twice about my name! My parents always explained what my name meant and I always loved that! (It means grace, so for some reason I thought it was awesome because it was the same as my middle name?!) Always liked my middle name (before it was crazy popular)
I hate my first name but it's very beautiful. I have personal reasons for hating it. Somebody who I hate, and have hated since childhood, addresses me by it exclusively and my name makes me think of their voice. It makes me physically ill to hear my first name. My middle name, the name I am addressed by, is lovely. My middle name is Elizabeth. I am nicknamed Ella which I think is ok..
I'm Tabitha Julie. I LOVE my first name. The doctor apparently went pale when my mum said she was calling me that, but I'm so glad she didn't change her mind. I've had to spell it a lot, and get endless jokes about the TV show Bewitched, but I think it's beautiful and unique. I think I've only met two other Tabithas my whole life.
My middle name is after a cousin, whose also one of my closest friends and looked after me as a baby, so I love that too.
I actually always liked my name. I never really had to worry about there being another Lesley but it wasn't so out there that people found my name to be weird.
My FN was after my Grandpa Lester and my MN was a traditional family name. Apparently, my mother's side of the family has been passing down the MN Jo- (Joann, Joanna, Josephine, Joan, you get the idea. Jo-something.) for around 8 generations. My mother always told me I came from "a long line of amazing women" and it made me feel really special.
Me: 28 Husband: 31 TTC#1: January 2015- September 2016 Infertility, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Rainbow baby born June 6, 2017 ❤️
I actually always liked my name. I never really had to worry about there being another Lesley but it wasn't so out there that people found my name to be weird.
My FN was after my Grandpa Lester and my MN was a traditional family name. Apparently, my mother's side of the family has been passing down the MN Jo- (Joann, Joanna, Josephine, Joan, you get the idea. Jo-something.) for around 8 generations. My mother always told me I came from "a long line of amazing women" and it made me feel really special.
Aww if I were having a girl her middle name would have been Lesley after my grandpa Lester. Before he passed he specifically asked that no one name a boy after him, though because he hated the name Lester.
My name is Becky Ann. Not Rebecca, just Becky. And that has been my whole life - explaining that to people. If my name was Rebecca I would go by that it Becca. I never would've chosen Becky so I hate that it seems to most people that I have chosen it. I always hated have no nickname options - although my dad still calls me Becca sometimes, don't even get me started there! It was his dumb idea to give me a nickname as a full name.
I'm a Vera Jewel born in '90. I love my first name and am okay with my middle name which is what my family calls me. When my parents were talking about names they discovered that my dads grandmothers were Vera & Jewel and that my moms grandmother's were Vera & Jewel. The whole family convinced them it was "fate" and that I had to be named Vera Jewel. Even though I love Vera my mom actually hates it and only refers to be as Jewel.
My first name is Melody. I'm resigned to it now, but I hated it for most of my life. Mainly because people always call me Melanie! Or Michelle, weirdly. When I was little, I was very shy, and I would rather just answer to Melanie than correct people. Now I'm very careful to pronounce it correctly and distinctly ("Mel-oh-dee") but I still get Melanie all the time. Or sometimes people just call me Mel, which I kind of hate. It's not like Melanie is THAT much more common, I don't know why it's the default.
Now that I'm trying to pick a name for my kid, I really want to pick something that people will hear correctly and be able to spell, but my own name is proof that even a "real" name properly spelled (if uncommon) will be messed up on a regular basis. People just don't listen that closely.
Also, I think names that are words are boring. My name means "song." No kidding! Blah. It might have helped if I'd known why my mom chose it, but she literally never told me until I was late in my 20s that she picked it because it was a happy name. They'd been trying for another kid for 7 years and thought they couldn't have any more, before I came along. So tell your kids early on why you chose the names you did! So even if they don't like the names, they'll know why you liked them, and that may help.
Amanda. '94. Between the Amanda show. A-Man-Da. And then the fact that the Gilmore Girls (last name) was a popular show I could never escape. Then my paternal grandmother always wanted to call me Mandy but my mom was hell bent against it (I am too) but as the only grand-daughter I was always her "A-Mandy" which is equally annoying. Basically I hate my first name. But I've always gone by "sis" or in high school my last name. Even SO calls be babe instead.
I've always liked my name, although the whole thing is really long. My one complaint is that having so many nickname possibilities gets tired after a while. I also don't really love that my parents chose my nickname for me when I was a baby because childhood nicknames stick and even though I prefer my full name most people call me Sam. For some reason, people seem to feel at liberty to call me a nickname even if I introduce myself as Samantha. Like another Samantha who posted, I do not like Sammy and correct people who call me that.
I will probably give my LO a standalone name to avoid the nickname thing.
I am Kassie Marie and I personally wish my name was spelled Cassie. Only because it's mispelled constantly, so it'd make things a lot easier. Not a fan of names traditionally starting with C to be spelled with K.
I have always disliked my name. It's too popular and I think it sounds childish. I loath telling people my name but I do appreciate that it's a name everyone has heard of and spelling rarely varies. When choosing a name for my children, I am very aware of selecting a name that everyone has heard of but not everyone has.
Re: How do you feel about YOUR name?
Baby Boy #1 born 1/9/17
Baby Boy #2 EDD 11/4/18
Didn't like my name as a kid. From about high school on I really started to love it. Samantha and Sam (no Sammy) fit me really well. I like that it's feminine and has nick name options.
Don't like my middle name though. Really don't like them together with the two vowel sounds. But it could be worse...I always liked that I didn't have Marie or Lynn for a middle name like all my friends seemed to have.
*edited for typo, because I wasn't born in 1999
When I was a kid, my name was super uncommon. Around November when people were talking about "the elections" I always misheard and thought they were talking about me. Nobody could say it. Nobody could spell it. The ones that could thought I was named after the bitchy woman from Dynasty (I wasn't!). People made fun of it. I knew it was a Russian man's name. I hated it. Once I was in high school (around 10th grade), I started to really appreciate that I wasn't one of the Jennifers/Christies/Tiffanys etc. As an adult, around the time that I really started to love my name, it was com incidentally becoming more popular for little girls; whenever I would hear it in public I'd answer – I had been the only one for so long! – only to see a mother talking to her young daughter and looking confusedly at me. Something i can say: I have never and will never drive a Lexus, and I am not from Texas. There were other jokes, but those were the big eyerollers. Please get some creativity people :P
March 2016 siggy: babies - expectation vs reality
Brian's Whovian wife (5/'09)
Autism mama!
Needless to say, both of my children have classic, family names.
Now I like it, because it's a little different, and I think it's pretty. Even though it might be considered an old lady name! My sister was named Melanie, and I always liked that better than Maureen (Melanie is still one of my favorite names).
I was sad to see this name in a top ten dead names list. I want to name my daughter Kay linn. One word pronounced separately. I know it would get merged to kale-in so I won't be doing this. Looking at alternative k names.
I feel like parents used to put less thought into naming children many years ago. I can only hope my daughter doesn't feel this way about her name one day!
Nicole Lee, late 80s. I don't mind my name but don't love it either. At least it's not childish sounding. Growing up I went by Nicki for a while which has a different sound to it: NI-key. Nicole is more like Ni-COLE. The change in emphasis always bothered me when everyone switched to calling me Nicole, I guess I like the Ni sound more than the Co sound.
There were a few others with my name in my class, so I went by a last initial sometimes. There was another girl with the same middle name and same last initial as me though and whenever we had classes together we had to go by our entire names-which both of us had long, harder to pronounce last names. That was pretty annoying. Funny enough, we both now have the same exact married last name! Ahh!
My middle name is after my aunt and I don't care for it. I feel it's a boyish name and there wasn't much meaning behind it. My younger sister was named after my grandmother and several cousins shared her middle name and it seemed more special to me.
I think my name flowed nicely with my maiden name and I love that my name is spelled differently but still looks classy. I guess I'm indifferent to it.
I grew up around Tiffany's, Lauren's, and Jessica's and I always wished my name were as gorgeous as theirs.
Apparently I was almost named "Paula" after the pope who survived an attempted assassination around the time of my birth... So I guess there was no getting out of a name with religious associations.
I had a son in June and named him Wolfgang. He'll be the only Wolfie in his class, fingers crossed.
I always disliked my name growing up as I felt it was an older name. I too wanted a trendy name.
However now I am a bit older I don't mind it as much. I still think it sounds like someone's mums name which will be fitting soon as I am obviously going to be a mum but I think it sounds kind of dignified and more classy than the trendier names I wanted back when I was younger.
My middle name was my grandmothers and I will be passing it on to my daughter when she is born.
BFP #1 - 8/15
MC - 9/15
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BFP #2 4/24/17
EDD: 11/2/17
I didn't care for it much growing up, but now I like it quite a bit. It's not too common but also not weird.
I never really thought twice about my name! My parents always explained what my name meant and I always loved that! (It means grace, so for some reason I thought it was awesome because it was the same as my middle name?!) Always liked my middle name (before it was crazy popular)
My middle name is after a cousin, whose also one of my closest friends and looked after me as a baby, so I love that too.
I actually always liked my name. I never really had to worry about there being another Lesley but it wasn't so out there that people found my name to be weird.
My FN was after my Grandpa Lester and my MN was a traditional family name. Apparently, my mother's side of the family has been passing down the MN Jo- (Joann, Joanna, Josephine, Joan, you get the idea. Jo-something.) for around 8 generations. My mother always told me I came from "a long line of amazing women" and it made me feel really special.
TTC#1: January 2015- September 2016
Infertility, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Rainbow baby born June 6, 2017 ❤️
Baby #2 due June 12, 2018
Now that I'm trying to pick a name for my kid, I really want to pick something that people will hear correctly and be able to spell, but my own name is proof that even a "real" name properly spelled (if uncommon) will be messed up on a regular basis. People just don't listen that closely.
Also, I think names that are words are boring. My name means "song." No kidding! Blah. It might have helped if I'd known why my mom chose it, but she literally never told me until I was late in my 20s that she picked it because it was a happy name. They'd been trying for another kid for 7 years and thought they couldn't have any more, before I came along. So tell your kids early on why you chose the names you did! So even if they don't like the names, they'll know why you liked them, and that may help.
I've always liked my name, although the whole thing is really long. My one complaint is that having so many nickname possibilities gets tired after a while. I also don't really love that my parents chose my nickname for me when I was a baby because childhood nicknames stick and even though I prefer my full name most people call me Sam. For some reason, people seem to feel at liberty to call me a nickname even if I introduce myself as Samantha. Like another Samantha who posted, I do not like Sammy and correct people who call me that.
I will probably give my LO a standalone name to avoid the nickname thing.