I have to tell you that being called Little Anything is annoying to a teenage boy. I also wasn't thrilled to have an obscure ethnic name when everyone else was Jim, John or Bob.
Currently, I know a dozen Megans/Meghans, including my good friends Megan, Meghan and Megan. What's it like to have a common name? Is the inevitable confusion a pain?
My favorite name is possessed by my good friend Aimee. She explained to me that it's the French version of Amy. Her ancestors are French Canadians.
Do you like your name? Is it common or obscure? Did you ever want to change it?
I like my name a lot. I didn't know anyone else with the name Nora growing up. As an adult, I met a couple of others. I liked having an uncommon name. But today, whenever I go to the park or anywhere where there are lots of young kids, it seems that every parent is calling to their little girl, Nora! Apparently, it is becoming much more common.
ReplyDeleteI like my name, my parents didn't want me to be an Elizabeth or a Bethany, they liked the simple "Beth" so that's what they gave me. For Oliver I just liked the sound of it and thought Ollie would be a cute nickname, so that's more or less how we picked his name!
ReplyDeleteSomething I can't stand is junior times several. Everytime I see a guy (and it's pretty much always a guy) who has a name that ends in 'the second or the third etc' it makes me feel sorry for him that his parents couldn't think of any name at all and ended up giving him the exact same one as his father and grandfather. I don't mean stupid names like 'the hulk' should be accepted (and we do have names like that here) but give each name some thought. It doesn't have to be their destiny like they believe in Indian tradition but at least give them some care when naming a child. It's essentially up to the parent as to if the child will be bullied later in school or life down to a poor name choice. My mum just stuck a pin in a book because all of her choices were rejected. Mine is a common enough name but not with my spelling, the English way so that's what people get wrong with it. I can't imagine being called anything else
ReplyDeleteWhoops, forgot the word individuality. That was a point I meant to make, every child's name should be individual for them and not an extension of their parents
DeleteMy name is so common that one in every one hundred people in my high school shared it. I like my name, but it's definitely influenced me to consider slightly more unusual names for any kids. It was super awkward in high school when there were three Sarahs in the same grade. I was Sarah one, another girl was Sarah Loretta and the other girl was Sarah 2. I don't know how she felt about it.
ReplyDeleteI like my name ~ Couldn't imagine any other name for myself. I once worked for two bosses whose wives had the same name as me ... Now when I shorten my name it is Lynn ... I would get a note from the one addressed to Lyn (same as his wife) and from the other Lynne (same as his wife). Neither of them could ever get it right ... they were such wonderful guys that I forgave them that!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen we chose my boy Connor's name it was as a result of watching The Highlander and falling in love with Connor MacLeod.
You want to talk common, you're looking at someone with the most popular girl's name of the 1980s/early 90s, though to be fair, it was just started to gain traction when my folks bestowed it on and they couldn't have foreseen that there would soon be zillions of little Jessicas running around North America. Not that such is a bad thing per se, and I very much like my name, it's just that being the type who enjoys a heavy handed dose of individuality, it would have been nice not to have had two other Jessica's in my Girl Guide troupe of all of about ten or twelve girls, for example.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the subject of names, their histories, popularity, etc so seeing you bring it up here today brought a big smile my way.
♥ Jessica
Aw! :-) I do love my name, and don't think my parents were consciously aware when they chose 'Aimee' (it was the only name they had picked out, not even knowing whether I was a boy or girl, and probably would've had to scramble for a boy's name) that it would make my whole name so very French sounding when we don't speak a word of it. I think about 10% of 'Amy's are actually 'Aimee's... but it was a little more common spelling variation than normal in the region where I grew up.
ReplyDeleteI love 'Jeanette'. It was my grandmother's name and is my little cousin's name. Everyone always called her 'Jen' but now that she's hit adulthood, and I think because we lost my grandmother a few years ago, she now goes by the entire 'Jeanette', proud to be named after the woman we all love so much.
I had an even more unusual name than you! As a child, I did not know another Kerenza and I hated it- I wanted to be Emma, Lucy, Sophie, anything else but it! Now of course, I love it- people always remember me- musicians remember me, as my name (and surname) was so unusual. Funnily enough, when I reached 15, another Kerenza joined my orchestra and one day at a string festival, we saw the violin case (both of us Kerenzas) open of one Kerenza Davis so we patiently sat there by the case and when this little girl came over, we asked, "Are you Kerenza?" which she said yes to and we replied excitedly, "SO are we!!!". It was then that I encountered several more of us. There was one with an s instead of z in my college, an Australian dancer who joined my Balinese gamelan group was another with s, when I worked at a music college, there was a brilliant violinist called Kerenza (same spelling) and lo and behold, another Carenza joined my current orchestra some years ago! We still delight in always saying each others names! Funny how things change! x
ReplyDeleteNowadays, the names I love are common in different countries- Genevieve, Estelle, Marianne (all France) Pierre, Jean-Luc (French!) x
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI was named after the daughter of a friend of my grandmother… yeah I know.
My mom wanted to call me Maria Alejandra but somehow my grandma won that battle. I've never cared much for my name, it seems normal and the nick name in Spanish for it is either Lore or Lorenita - which are not that bad.
i didn't love my name, rebecca. i at least wished it was spelled the biblical way, rebekah, because THAT would have been much cooler, lol. i always wished i was samantha or alexandra, because i could be called sam or alex...probably the tomboy in me. i once told my mom i wanted to change my name to K.C., and she was very offended. haha.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Big and Little in my family too. My uncle's name is Vin and they named their first born Vin also. Thus, Big Vin and more commonly Little Vin. Little Vin is now 20 years old but he'll always be Lil Vin.
ReplyDeleteI love my name. I like it because, despite the popularity of it now, I rarely meet other people with my name. I've almost always been the only Emily. In class, at work, whatever. I wouldn't change it for the world.
I was actually named after a misheard quote from one of my mothers favorite movies. Abbot & Costello A time of their lives....The character was Melody Allen, my mother thought it was Melanie..but the memorable scene in the movie is when there is a sceance and the ghost of melody's fiance posesses the creepy maid, and in his voice she talks to them....my mother loved that he would call out....."MELLLLLLL OOOOOO DYYYYYY,,,,,, MEELLLOOODDDYYYY" only problem was she thought he was saying Melanie...that is how i got my name...
ReplyDeleteI actually love the name, because the root of melanie is black, there is a sense of darkness and a duality of black and white in my life. Such a beautiful name, to mean such a darkened thing..
The irony is that my nick name is "light"...complete opposite of Melanie, and i still to this day have problems with my loved one Martin calls me melanie, always like it when he calls me light...
I have a love/hate thing with mine. Jacquie or Jacqueline was my given name. I like the Frenchified spelling. Now I am Jack deliberately due to gender issues and wanting to acknowledge the masculine in me and to be more visible as genderqueer. However I hate the spelling with a k. So I play with it. My email signature has a list of Jacks like Captain Jack, and Jack and Jill, which people add to! Of course my online name of Jazzy Jack is also a play with my name xo JJ
ReplyDeleteMy Turkish name is 'Defne' and I grew up loving my name because it was not a weird unheard of name but it was also not common which I loved.
ReplyDeleteExcept now, it has become extremely popular and 1 out of 10 girls are named Defne. I am sooooo annoyed!
In U.S. I changed it to 'Daphne' and again I love that it is not a common name. Not that crazy about the scooby doo reference but at least she is a good looking girl in the cartoon minus the brains.
I just hope it doesn't pick up in popularity here…
When naming our kids we focused hard to not pick popular names. Just me I guess… Like to be unique...
Daphne.
You are unique, Daphne, and that's a lovely story. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteI barely new any Lisa's growing up. There have been a small handful who have come and gone in my life over the years.
ReplyDeleteI love my name! My full name is Lisa Marie Nelson. I used to hate my middle name (I hated being asked if my parents were Elvis fans, which they're not.), but in recent years someone pointed out how 'old school' Lisa Marie sounds. It was an epiphany for me and suddenly I love my name.
Lisa Marie. ;)
I'm not sure why but in the old days (my parents' generation), it was very popular to refer to a person by two names. My mother was Barbara Jo. It's cute. Lisa Marie is cool!
DeleteI had two other Megan friends growing up (one was Meaghan, one was Meghan), and I did like my name...however, I always wanted a name that allowed for a nickname (I wanted to be Maggie, which really isn't short for Megan). My sisters and I all shared the same middle name (Jean) and I hated it as a kid, but love it now. It's funny how kids all want a common name and parents always want their kid to be that only name in the classroom!
ReplyDeleteThat's true -- as a child, we want to fit in (or at least not stand out), whereas later in life we want to be unique. I evolved that way with my relation to my name.
DeleteMy name is Valentina, it's not too popular in Italy, and I am quite happy with it. Since it's connected to Valentine's Day and my hubby was named after the greek God of Love I think we're a good match, LOL. Kisses
ReplyDeleteFashion and Cookies
I have a common name and hated it growing up because kids called me Wendy the witch from Casper. I love it now but it took time.
ReplyDeleteBut she was a good witch and very cute. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a witch. Of course, we want what we don't or can't have. :-)
DeleteTell me about it, Shawna!
DeleteMy name was relatively obscure when I was a kid; I inherited it from my mom's grandmother AND my dad's grandmother. I loved that I never had to say, "Which Emma?" when a teacher called my name, but hated that I could never find souvenir keychains or coffee mugs (despite my lack of keys or taste for coffee). When Jennifer Aniston's character on Friends named her baby Emma, the name blew up. Now there's little Emmas everywhere. I can almost always find cheap tchotchkes with my name on them, but I often find myself whipping my head around only to see that the person frantically screaming "EMMA!" was yelling at her daughter.
ReplyDeleteTrends and fads in names come and go and a person's age is often hinted at by the name. My generation has a lot of Jennifer, Tracey, Lisa, Karen or MIchelle, and you don't see those names being given to children at the moment. When I was choosing names for my son who is now twenty, one of the names considered was Alexander. We didn't go with it and I'm glad because it turned out to be one of the most popular male names of his generation. As a teacher I often had three boys named Alex at one time in a class. Unisex names became more popular too so you could find yourself one of many people named Taylor or Ashton but they are male and female.
ReplyDeleteMy own name has grown on me. I used to dislike it but now it is rather like a comfortable old shoe and not so common that I meet too many other Shawnas. When I do they are usually spelled with a U and not a W. Like Emma above, I could never get any of those key chains, mugs, pencils, bedroom door nameplates or anything else that was offered . Still can't. I'm most put out! ;-)
We'll custom-make a charm for you, pal.
DeleteAnd you're right about trends in naming. How many women do you know today named Gertrude, Gladys or Ethel? All were popular in my grandparents' generation.
Suzanne is a pretty common name, but I'm picky about it. As a kid I only let my Grandma call me Susie-Q. Everyone else had to call me Suzanne. Not Susan, not Sue, Suzanne. I've relaxed a bit on it but I still dislike Susan.
ReplyDeletebisous
Suzanne
I hate my name so much, I won't even tell you what it is. My whole life I have gone by my last name. Thank God I live in Chicago, where this is pretty normal.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I'm going to have to guess. Gladys? Gertrude? Ethel?
DeleteWe had a guy come through my office who's legal name was LittleJimmie. He was anything but!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know a lot of Megans growing up, but apparently it IS a common name. I didn't like it because I never got nicknames as a kid, and no one would dare call me Meg and live. ;P
Can I call you Stretch?
DeleteWell, life as a Jennifer/Jen means you have about 6 other girls with your name in any given class in school. But it also means you can walk into any store with personalized items and know there's going to be one with your name on it if you want one. ;) Honestly, I never really had any issues having such a common name. And now with my common last name added in, you'd think I'd feel too obscure or not unique enough, but I actually feel the opposite because I love how my name flows so much. (There's a girl in New Zealand who does get a few of my emails, though, because our addresses are so similar, haha.) I can't imagine being called anything else, except maybe my middle name.
ReplyDeleteNow, when it came to naming my daughter, I wanted her to have something completely unusual and yet still pretty and suited to her. It just felt right for her even though my common name feels right for me. I like that both of us can have nicknames.